The chart above is a pictorial way to look at dye progression.

Column one:  Spot dyeing, except for green, is done on a white egg shell.  (Green spot dyeing can be done on yellow or gold.)

Column two:  Yellow or gold is usually used as a base color.  It makes succeeding colors richer and fuller.

Column three:  The other dyes fall into two families: Orange/Red and Blue/Green.  After Yellow or Gold, eggs are usually dyed in colors from either or these two families; within the families the colors progress from light to dark.

You can switch between dye families.  An orange rinse or pink dye can be used to go from the Blue/Green family to the orange/red family.  To go in the opposite direction, a yellow rinse can be used.

Column four:  Background colors are usually dark dyes, like black, dark red, brown, etc.  While some pysanky use one of the bright colors from Column three as the final background color, other will use a darker shade.

Pysanky from either dye family can use Black as a final background color.  Red, orange or pink pysanky do well in browns, purples, or dark reds as well.  Pysanky that are blue or green do well in dark greens, dark blues and some purples.

Simple pysanky will sometimes go from white or yellow/gold directly to the final background color.  White and Yellow work with most of the dark final colors; Gold does, too, but can sometimes give odd results.

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