Natalia Sokil learned pysankarstvo late in life.  The art was banned by the Soviets when they occupied western Ukraine after WWII, and few people of her generation had a chance to learn to write pysanky when they were young.  Natalia learned other traditional crafts, though–she embroiders beautifully, and knits.  This is an example of her work, where she has combined embroidery with her love of pysanky:

Pani Natalia learned pysankarstvo at a master class in Chervonohrad, which she attended with her granddaughter.  She uses Vira Manko’s first book as a source of information and designs.  Supplies are difficult to find, especially good dyes and styluses of any sort. Pani Natalia has been able to scrounge up dyes, using locally produced wool dyes, but had to make her own styluses:

These are some of the beautiful pysanky that Pani Natalia has made.  She was kind enough to give me several as gifts; since they were full, I wasn’t able to bring them back home with me this time.  My goddaughter Daryna has promised to empty them for me, so next year they should be with me in Michigan.  Either way, I will photograph them and add them to this page in 2011.

Can you spot the four ringers?  (Hint: there are two wooden eggs and two Hutsul pysanky  in this bowl of eggs.)

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