I have had this empty ostrich egg for about 2 years (from my good buddy and art teacher, Jen!) You can buy any kind of empty egg from the Ukrainian gift shop FYI too. Just some basic math, it takes different people different amounts of time to make pysanky but the general rule is: the bigger the egg, the more surface area, the longer it will take. A decently complicated chickens egg takes me about 4 hours, a goose egg about 8, and this ostrich egg I was figuring would be at least 16. I knew it was now or wait at least 2 years since baby boy will be here next Pascha and babies+pysanky= :P
So it took me about 2 hours to sketch the designs on paper, then another hour to sketch them on egg. The preliminary kitska work (white outlines) took me the longest, 2 two hour sessions then about an hour and a half for each color not counting dye time. So "big egg" as it says on the box Jen gave me, and how we have lovingly referred to it, is finished! Here are pics from my 10pm pre-Pascha photoshoot last night.
CHRIST IS RISEN!
