The first step in creating a design on your pysanka is to take the ideas you have seen in your mind, in a book, in a photo or on an egg and transfer them in pencil to your pysanka.The design should be drawn on a clean, dry egg at room temperature.

If you wanted to make the “Star” pysanka from the design sheet in my Downloads section

you would probably want to sketch the design onto the egg first.  You’d want to divide the egg evenly, and draw in the star.

It is important to remember that you should draw ONLY BASIC DIVISIONS AND LINES IN PENCIL. Do not draw on every single little detail. The pencil lines are meant to be guide lines only.  They are there to help you divide the egg evenly, to help you center motifs, and keep parallel lines parallel.  

First you should draw the basic division you will be using – halves, quarters, diamonds, triangles – and a few simple helpful lines (marking midpoints, etc.).  Do NOT draw in the whole design, or you may end up with a smeared black mess.  (More information here about applying divisions and motifs.)

These would be the pencil lines you would draw for the even division of the surface of the egg.  You would divide it in the star division, and draw circles to help you make an even star.

Next you would LIGHTLY draw in the star:

How do you draw these lines and circles, and make such even divisions? I use a craft lathe, a set of UGS templates, and a small 6 inch piece of a measuring tape to aid me in making pencil lines.  You can learn to use them on the following pages:

.......After you are done applying wax to all of your white lines, you may wish to remove the remaining (excess)pencil lines. If your final color will be black, this is not imperative; but if your final color will be a relatively light one – especially light blue, gold, any of the pastels, or bright red – this should be considered. 

Pencil lines can be quite obvious on a light colored egg, and wax removal doesn’t always remove the pencil as well. I use Goof-Off wipes to wash away the pencil lines on a white egg. (Note: Make sure you use Goof Off wipes, and NOT regular Goof Off, as the latter will remove your wax.DO NOT use them on a colored egg, as they will remove the dye as well.) 

After wiping off the lines, continue as you normally would by putting the egg into a vinegar rinse to acidify the shell, and then dyeing. Pencil lines can be removed from the white areas after the pysanka is completed. (More information on pencil line removal.)

And you can learn almost everything I know about making pencil lines on eggs as well........by carefully reading this section!

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