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Pysanka: How a Ukrainian Easter Egg Is Actually Made

The UAFest kitchen team

August 2026 · 8 min read

A pysanka is an egg written with wax. The name comes from pysaty — to write — and the work is exactly that: lines of hot beeswax drawn onto the shell with a small funnel-tipped stylus, then dipped through dyes from lightest to darkest.

Everything the wax covers keeps the colour underneath it. At the end the wax is melted away and the whole pattern appears at once, which is the moment everybody makes the same noise.

The tools

A kistka is the stylus — a small brass funnel on a handle, heated over a candle, filled with beeswax that flows out of the tip as a thin line. Traditional kistky are heated in the flame every few strokes; electric ones hold a steady temperature and are much easier for a first attempt.

Beyond that: raw eggs at room temperature, a candle, aniline pysanka dyes, white vinegar, paper towel and patience.

The order of the colours

The rule is light to dark. Wax goes on wherever the colour beneath should stay. So: wax the parts that stay white, dip in yellow; wax what stays yellow, dip in orange; and so on down to red, then black.

Once an egg has been in red it cannot go back to blue. Planning the pattern before the first line of wax is most of the craft.

Reading the symbols

The motifs are the same family that appears in embroidery and on ceramics, and they were understood as wishes rather than decoration.

Sun or eight-pointed star — life, growth, protection.
Endless line, the meander — eternity, with no beginning and no end.
Wheat or a ladder — harvest and prayer.
Deer, horses, birds — wealth, strength and the coming of spring.
Ruzha, the rosette — love and caring.

Why the egg is left full

Traditionally the egg is written raw and whole, and the contents dry out inside over years. Blowing the egg first was considered to empty it of the life the pysanka was made to protect.

Modern practice is split: many makers blow the egg after the wax comes off, which makes it far less fragile and much lighter to post. Both approaches sit side by side at any Ukrainian craft table.

Trying it once

Pysankarstvo takes an afternoon to try and years to be good at. Workshops run at Ukrainian festivals and community centres, and a starter kit — a kistka, beeswax and a set of dyes — costs less than a good dinner.

What people ask

A Ukrainian Easter egg decorated with a wax-resist method: lines of hot beeswax are written onto the shell between dye baths, and the wax is melted off at the end to reveal the pattern.

A krashanka is an egg dyed a single solid colour, hard-boiled and eaten at Easter. A pysanka is written with wax, kept rather than eaten.

A kistka — a small brass funnel on a handle that holds melted beeswax and draws a fine line on the shell.

Traditionally the egg is written whole and raw. Many makers today blow it after the wax is removed, which makes the finished egg lighter and far less fragile.

Workshops run at Ukrainian festivals and community centres. UAFest holds hands-on craft workshops through the afternoon on festival day.