In his book “60 Score of Ukrainian Easter Eggs,” Zenon Elijiw includes many eggs of whose provenance he is not certain. He labels them “diasporan,” and they include:
1) eggs that were decorated in the diaspora, but their ornament follows tradition
2) samples in collections in NA that could have been decorated in Ukraine, but their location of
origin cannot be determined with certainty
3) those eggs whose ornamentation is based on regional Ukrainian pysanka styles, but with such
modifications that they cannot be classified as traditional
Today the term is generally taken to mean pysanky created in the diaspora (generally North America) using traditional motifs and ornamentation, but in new and original combinations. These are at best “quasi-traditional,” and can sometimes have a tendency towards extreme intricacy of work (although not so much in the sorokoklyn variant).
I’ve included this set of diasporan sorokoklyn pysanky, taken from Elyjiw’s book, here on this page.
