Natural Dyes of Pysanky Virtual Presentation with Mar'yana Svarnyk (Folk Arts@UHEC)

Tuesday, March 11, 2025
6:30 PM ET

About the Webinar: 

Before aniline dyes were invented and became available by the mid-19th century, all pysanky must have been colored with natural dyes. However, the tradition of using natural dyes on eggshell has almost completely disappeared, and was starting to be reinvented by pysanky enthusiasts at the end of 20th century. What were the old natural dyes for pysanky, which dyes are being used now, how to make natural dyes, and what is the future of natural dyes for pysanky? The talk will give an overview of natural dyes, the earliest ethnographic sources documenting the use of natural dyes on pysanky in what is now Ukraine, current practices, and possible future developments, especially in light of sustainability and living heritage.

About Mar'yana Svarnyk:

Mar'yana Svarnyk was born and grew up in Ukraine and lived in Canada for about 20 years. In September 2023 she moved to Tartu, Estonia to pursue a 2-year MA degree in Folkloristics and Applied Heritage Studies.

She learned how to make common as well as drop-pull pysanky from her grandmother in the 1980s while growing up in Ukraine and has continued with this craft after moving to Canada for studies. Mar’yana started experimenting with making and using natural dyes on eggs in 2016 and never looked back. She loves to prepare the dyes from scratch, especially from dried or fresh whole plants or parts, though she also uses commercially produced natural dye extracts. Even though using natural dyes introduces a lot of uncertainty and unpredictability into the practice, and is extremely time-consuming, she finds the effort worth it. Mar’yana is very much fascinated by the history of dyes and their use and significance in different historic periods and different places around the world.

Mar’yana’s current MA project is centered around the late 19th century ethnographic publications, more specifically 1899 Kylzhynsky’s catalogue and the corresponding pysanky collection, currently at the Poltava Local Lore Museum. Mar’yana will develop the working recipes of several natural dyes listed as having been used on pysanky in the late 19th century ethnographic sources, and will recreate with these natural dyes a number of pysanky recorded in the catalogue.

Website: https://eggbatik.com

This workshop is FREE to watch online (link will be sent before the event), but registration is required.

Donations are gratefully accepted.