This year’s classes touch on reginal pysanky designs
Pysanky also known as Ukrainian Easter eggs are an art form that combines folklore, skill, and tradition. This year Loris Sargeant is hosting pysanky making classes this month at the St. Andrews Heritage Centre. The classes will interest beginner students and some also focus on designs from different regions of Ukraine.
“They’re decorated eggs that come back from ancient times, basically. [The name pysanky] comes from the verb for pasaty which means to write. We basically write on the eggs. Everyone thinks that we paint them but we write with the wax,” said Sargeant.
The basic process includes coming up with a design, which Sargeant guides folks through in her class, then using wax to cover areas of the egg that you don’t want to be stained by dye. After adding layers of wax and dye to the egg, participants will be able to create multi-coloured designs on their eggs.
Sargeant learned this technique from her mother whose parents were Ukrainian and brought the tradition with them when they came to Canada.
“My mom taught me probably when I was like four years old. She started me out with it every Easter. She would make her dyes; our yellow came from onion skins, and our deep reds came from the beetroots. We didn’t have any of those synthetic dyes or anything like that, we used actually natural dyes,” said Sargeant.
She took a brief hiatus from the art when she moved to the city but came back to it in memory of her mother after she passed. There is a tradition of putting a pysanky on loved ones’ graves and Sargeant wanted to do this for her mother.
“It just came back to me and the love of it. I just [am making pysanky] more and more. My husband laughs at how many eggs we have in the house,” said Sargeant.
She says that though the history of making these eggs for her is rooted in Ukrainian heritage, anyone of any background is welcome to take her classes.
“I teach them just the basics. We have a design that I figure out for them, and I work it out. Then they get to follow the lines. We go piece by piece on it. They get to put their own little touches to it if they want. They don’t have to follow the design exactly but it’s there for them to work with. Then, I hand out my little papers with all the [folklore] and the meanings of all the designs,” said Sargeant.
This year she is teaching a little more about regional differences and traditional designs. On March 16, there will be a class focused on designs from Bukovina and on March 30 the class will focus on Podilla designs.
Sargeant said that though in contemporary times artists have more personal styles, in the past, you could tell the area of Ukraine where a pysanky came from by its design.
“Basically we’re going to go do a little bit of history on the region, I’m not going to get too much into it, because that’s a long story and then some. A little bit of history, and then just going back into six or seven different designs and going through what the design is, what is on it, and the meaning behind each,” said Sargeant.
She’s excited to see what her students create this year.
“Every egg even though they’re all the same design, there’s still a little bit that’s different on each egg. Last year, not one of the eggs looked the same. They all have their own little take on them,” she said.
She encourages residents to come to a class and learn a new skill.
“I think everyone needs to learn how to make them. I just love making them and I love teaching people to do them. So I just think everyone should make their own,” said Sargeant.
Sargeant has a website with contact information as well as more information about her art. You can check her out at https://prairie-harvestpysanky.square.site/.
Record File Photos by Katelyn Boulanger and Submitted by Loris Sargeant
