email Youtube

Home
Galleries
Blog
Workshops & Calendar
Store
Resources
About
Contact

The Frayed Edges, March 2007–Part 2!

Then Kate showed us Ukrainian pisankyi (sp>?). Her adopted daughter Olena is from Ukraine, and these eggs that Kate made in the Ukrainian style are awesome!

Kate said that just ONE of these eggs can take a full day to make. She showed us the wax tools, much like a tjantjing from Bali used for batiking, which melt the soft beeswax (hold over flame) so you can draw the fine lines. I forgot to take a picture, but Kate has a set of “circle makers…heavy cardstock with holes in, and markings evenly spaced so you can make symmetical markings on the eggs.

First, you need to extract the egg insides. She has this cool tool that makes a small hole (with no cracks and chips), and another one that helps pump the egg out. Since it is just air, you can USE the egg…no waste! Sounds like scrambled eggs and bacon for dinner to me! Anyway, here’s Kate showing how to use the pump:

The process is much like batik: apply wax, dye first color. Add more wax (covering some of the previous color) and dye again. Repeat until done. Phew!

And here is her container of eggs from a birds-eye view:

Then, Kate turned the eggs over so we could see the sides:

I LOVED this one with the wheat stalks:

And here we are at lunch (which was actually beefore the eggs…who cares about chronology!). We had peanut soup, made by Kathy from Kate’s mother-in-law’s recipe (Kate—don’t forget I want that recipe…YUMMM again!):

Don’t they look nice and happy? Kathy always looks so pretty in all the pictures of her, and Kate has the nicest smile!

On the way home (on a detour…lotsa road damage here in Maine last weekend…we had snow followed by torrential rains which have washouts and sinkhole-sized potholes all over the place–gonna be LOTS of work for the road crews!) spotted this falling down house. I’m developing this “thing” for pictures of old falling down houses, wondering what it was like when the house was new and filled with a young family with kids and hope and hard times and love:

And then this barn on Route 3…you can see an old log cabin in the center, chinking and all:

OK, that’s all for this particular wonderful meeting. Now, to work!

3 Responses to “The Frayed Edges, March 2007–Part 2!”

  1. SiouxSue Says:

    Wow, Sarah, thanks as usual for sharing. I love those eggs…and the photos of Maine. Of course, I’ve never seen it in the winter, but I wish, I wish, I wish I could some day.

  2. fiberfantasia Says:

    hi Sarah, You were kind enough to give me some great insights and advice on a quilt I posted (Rhapsody on a Theme)and I am such a computer troglydite I don’t know how to answer your critiques directly on my blog so I hope you don’t mind this “thank you” showing up on your blog.
    Again, thanks for your comments, I know you put time and effort into them. I love your “Warrior” quilt…I’m signing off now to look at more of your wonderful works.
    Patricia Anderson Turner

  3. Frances Caple Says:

    I forgot to say in the previous post I love the batik fabric and found the quilt very interesting, the eggs in this post are very interesting to, so much inspiration comes from it all it must be wonderful to see them in the real,

    I became very interesting in the old and forgotten wooden buildings when i went walking in the USA and Canada, I took photos and made sketches of several maybe one day they will end up in my work, I went in one and it had been wall papered with news papers from the 1920’s I imagine for warmth more than decoration, we do not have them over here in the UK but up here in the highlands and islands of Scotland there are lots of old stone blackhouses,