Handling Eggs

 
 
Make sure your hands are clean and warm when working with pysanky.  Anything that is on your skin can rub off onto the egg, and may cause discoloration (if you’ve gotten dye all over your hands) or may cause the dyes to take poorly (food, natural skin oils, hand lotions or other oily/greasy substances).  Wash your hands well before working on eggs; if there is any reason you can’t get your hands clean, you may
want to consider wearing a pair of white cotton gloves.

The gloves are inexpensive, washable and easily available.  I wear them when my hands become stained with pysanka dyes; although bleach will easily remove the dyes from my hands, it dries my skin horribly.  Soap and water will remove most dye from my hands after a few washings. ( I usually wear only one glove, on my left hand, as that is the hand I hold my egg with.)   



Eggs are fairly sturdy, but can break quite easily if dropped.  This is particularly frustrating if the egg breaks after a lot of work has been put into it.  To avoid dropping and breaking the egg, rest it on your work area while working with it.  I make sure to have part of an egg carton available to set eggs down in while I’m not actively working on them. 

Most importantly, DO NOT hold it in mid-air – it is a recipe for disaster.....or scrambled eggs!  Keep you egg stabilized on your clean work surface; I hold the egg with my left hand while writing on it with my right.
   

 



   No!

   Egg help up in the air         

                                                








 




   Yes!

   Egg stabilized on work surface







AVOID this:




If a finished egg does crack or break, all is not necessarily lost.  Some eggs can be rescued, even if only in part.  Go to “Pysanka 911” to learn about emergency repairs.





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Handling Eggs