Lemko Pysanky

The Lemko people are a Ukrainian mountain people, but most of their ancestral lands now lie outside of the modern borders of Ukraine.  There are some in Zakarpattia oblast, and many reside in their old villages in the Priashiv region of Slovakia. Those who once lived in Poland were “resettled” after WWII–some repatriated to Ukraine and scattered throughout that nation, others sent to western areas of Poland.

While Lemky do write pysanky using an ordinary pysachok, they are renowned for their “drop-pull” pysanky.  These are created using a different tool–a straight pin or nail in a wooden handle. 

The tool is used to apply molten wax to the egg. Dots, teardrops and commas can be created, depending upon whether the wax is “pulled,”and how it is pulled.

All the shapes on the pysanka below were created with this technique.

Lemky favor bright colors, and their pysanky are rarely multicolored, unlike the one above. They create not only stars, suns and flowers, but human figures, waves, intricate borders and birds (like the storks below).

As noted earlier, Lemky do write linear batik pysanky; this is an example from Binyashevsky of such a design:

Below are a group of drop-pull pysanky written by renowned Lemko pysankarka Maria Yanko. Note the repertoire of component shapes, and the simple color palettes.