ALL THAT IS OLD IS NEW AGAIN....

I had a chance to visit the Ethnographic Museum in L'viv again this past August. It has lovely displays of Western Ukrainian costumes, tools, ceramics, embroidery and other folk art objects, as well as tools, a few traditional home interiors, and a large collection of antique European clocks. The last collection, incongruous though it may be, is actually quite interesting, with clocks dating back to the 16th century.

But I digress.

The pysanky that captured my interest were not those in the display cases (although they were interesting as well, and I photographed them all), but in the gift shop. There I found these:

(Click on the photo for a larger view)

The patterns seemed traditional enough, but it was the addition of etching that I found interesting. Etching eggs is not really a traditional Ukrainian style of egg decoration. We paint eggs, dye them, glue things to them, scratch them with sharp objects, and write on them with wax, but we don't etch or cut them.

These then are a modern interpretation of ancient designs.

Birds and deer, spirals and God's eyes, sun signs and evergreens are all present. The designs are much as my ancestors might have made them. But the technique has evolved.

Pysanka making, or pysankarstvo, the ancient art that was almost completely eradicated by the Russian Soviet state, has returned, and is growing and flourishing in Ukraine. And it's a very good thing.