Examples of traditional Hutsul rizba

(from the Folk Museum of Kolomiya)

Carved wooden objects are common throughout Ukraine, and reach their apogee in the Carpathian regions.  The objects pictured above are from the Hutsul regions.  The carved egg below is from a temporary display at the Museum of the Pysanka in Kolomyia.

The eggs below are from a plate in Venetia Newall’s “An Egg at Easter.”  The six in the center are from Poland; the others are all Ukrainian.

In Soviet times, the style of rizba (різба) pictured here was quite popular, both in Ukraine and in the diaspora.  I have two plates that my mother gave me, and boxes and photo albums from relatives abroad with this sort of work on them.  It appears to me that the wood was incised, and then the incised lines painted.

In recent decades, this sort of work has fallen out of favor, and simple rizba (carved wood) and encrustation (carved wood with inlay) have become more popular.  I never manage to acquire any pysanky of this sort, so I include Venetia Newall’s photo instead.  I have bought several plainly carved eggs, and a few with minimal inlay.  My mother owns some rather intricately inlaid eggs; photos are on the following page.