Eggs Beautiful

How to Make Ukrainian Easter Eggs

Author: Johanna Luciow, Ann Kmit and Loretta Luciow

Edition:  1st

Format:  Large format hardcover

Pages:  96          

Language:  English

Illustrations:  Many drawings and color photos

Publisher:  Ukrainian Gift Shop (Minneapolis, 1975)

Availability:  Yes (paperback only)

Acquired: Local Ukrainian store

ISBN:  978-0960250233

“Eggs Beautiful” was the first real pysanka book I ever owned.  Prior to purchasing it, all I had been exposed to was small pamphlets1, postcards and mimeographed2 handouts.  It was an eye-opener.  From it I learned a bit about the ancient history of the pysanka, its legends and lore, and the many forms of Ukrainian egg decoration (drop-pull, beaded, dryapanky, etc.)  This book may be where I saw my  first Trypillian-styled eggs. It was an eye-opening experience.

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1. 1.There were many small booklets in print in those days, mostly self-published, which could be purchased (along with color postcards) at Ukrainian shops or at large pysanka classes, like the sort the Ukrainian Graduates used to hold at our church hall. 
   
   

2. 2.Mimeography was an ancient form of mechanical duplication of documents.  The term is often incorrectly applied to ditto machines, which printed in aniline purple and more commonly used.  Both were inexpensive ways of making copies without resorting to typesetting. 
   Pysanka instruction sheets, with a page of written instructions and then a page or two of “design sheets” (sometimes step-by-step, but usually not) were commonly handed out at classes (included in the price of admission) or sold separately.
   UGS used to sell pages of such designs, and still includes Xeroxed versions of their instruction sheets in their pysanka kits. I saw someone trying to sell some of these old sheets on eBay, advertising them as “vintage” and valuable items.  They aren’t.
   
   

3. 
   

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