Detail of actual traditional Hutsul pysanky
Like the wooden “pysanky” of Yavoriv, those of the Hutsuls are a rather recent phenomenon, rather that some age old tradition. Hutsuls began to craft these “suvenirchyky” somewhat later than the craftsmen of Yavoriv, most likely the late 1980s.
These were simple wooden eggs painted with the intricate designs characteristic of Hutsul pysanky. Hutsul pysanka colors were usually preserved – white, yellow, green, red and black. There was always lots of the yellow cross-hatching that Hutsul (especially Kosmach) eggs are famous for.
In the late nineties Hutsul craftsmen began to stray from the traditional color palette, and experimented with new background colors like light green, light blue, yellow, pink, red, neon orange, etc.
In more recent times, the work on such pysanky has often gotten sloppier, as there is an effort to produce as many as possible in as short a time as possible. These eggs usually sell for well under a dollar in the crafts markets.
