Pysanky are still written in a traditional manner in much of Hutsulshchyna.  Although some pysankary have exchanged traditional styluses for modern electric ones, many more still used tools and techniques passed down from their mothers (with a few modern tweaks).

Yuriy Atamniuk recently photographed a traditional pysankarka, Oksana Vasylyshyn of Chornyi Potik, writing pysanky.  We see her here in the first photo using a traditional Hutsul stylus, with a long, narrow nib.  She is using molten wax; the pot of wax is sitting in a bowl of hot coals.  This is how pysanky were traditionally written; candles were a luxury in the past, and are a recent addition to pysankarstvo.

Some pysankarky have replaced the hot coals with a hot incandescent light bulb; you can see this in some fo the photos of Youri Biliak. Note also that the pysankarka is writing while holding the pysanka in mid-air; this is how it is done in Ukraine still.  And do you see the two pairs of eyeglasses?  This is something I do with my reading glasses, too, to get high magnification for fine work.

Below is a close-up of the pysankarka’s hands; you can see the stylus better.  It is a modernized version of the traditional Hutsul stylus, as the end is covered in metal.  Earlier pysachky simply had a handle and a nib/tip.

The photo below shows spot dyeing.  A sharpened wooden stick is dipped into dye, and the dye applied to the areas to be colored.  A fine paint brush could also be used.

Multiple colors are applied this way, the areas are waxed in and then the egg goes into the yellow dye bath.

The pysanka is then written in the usual fashion, ending with a black final color.  The coals are then utilized to remove the wax, too.  Pani Oksana blows on the coals, to get them hotter, and holds the pysanka over the glowing ones

She wipes off the melted wax, and repeats the heating process.

Little by little, the wax is wiped off completely.

The result is lovely pysanky like these: