Ukrainian egg decorating a lost art?

As a child, June Kowalchuk watched her mother meticulously design eggs in preparation for Ukrainian Easter.
For more than half-a-century, Kowalchuk has continued that tradition for Ukrainian Easter, which is being celebrated on Sunday this year, but she fears it is dying out.
“My mother taught me years and years ago. I’ve been doing it since my school days,” Kowalchuk said from her cozy living room Friday afternoon.
“She learned it from her mother in the old country, who learned it from her mother. It was a tradition we kept at home,” she noted.
And her home is a tribute to that tradition.
Kowalchuk’s living room is filled with bowls and tea cups carefully cradling Ukrainian eggs from years past. Some of the patterns match hand-stitched pillows or Ukrainian figurines also decorating the room.
She takes great pride in showing her work—both those on display and works in progress. On this day, she was particularly proud of two giant opaque eggs on her coffee table with hard, glossy shells.
“They’re ostrich eggs,” she explained.
Featuring a large cross and star, they’re done in black and white because Kowalchuk didn’t have anything large enough to dye them in.
“They’re not as good as they could be,” she added modestly.
As for her technique, Kowalchuk said it isn’t as delicate as some artists but is a far cry from the simple shapes and colours her mother produced.
Back then, her mother let wax drip from a candle directly onto the egg whereas Kowalchuk uses a pen-like instrument which can create fine lines of wax on the shell before it is dunked in colour dye.
While the tools have changed, the speed has not—it still takes between two and three days to complete each egg. Kowalchuk thinks that’s the reason most young people aren’t interested in taking up the art form.
She already has taught both of her sons and even her grandchildren how to make the eggs, but none seem to have the passion for it that she does.
“When I do it, my mind goes blank and I just concentrate on the egg. It’s sort of a therapy,” Kowalchuk said.
“It’s tradition, but most don’t want to be bothered,” she added.