Pysanka Museum

This morning we actually got to sleep in, all the way to 7:45am! Got almost 8 hours of sleep, but also starting to feel a bit throat sick, hopefully it doesn't turn into too much more. Our bus call was at 10:00 AM and Brooke had been talking about trying to go to the market once more since it is really close by. She ended up going quickly with a couple of girls and was successful in finding something small.

We then loaded up the bus and departed for Kolomeya, this time it was just over an hour away. The name Kolomeya comes from the words circle/wheel and washing, so washing the wheels in the river. It was said that the salt merchants would wash the wheels of their carriages in this town and that is why it has this name. In Kolomeya we visited two separate museums; the Pysanky Museum and the Hutsulschyna Museum.

Our first stop was at the Pysanky Museum. It was the only one in the whole world and was founded in 1988, but the actual building location was made in 2000. The outside of the museum has a massive pysanka built into the building. The guide told us that it measures 14m high by 10m diameter and that it is the largest pysanka in the whole world, but I beg to differ. Christine later downloaded an egg volume calculator and determined that the Vegreville pysanka is larger by 461 m³. Point Alberta!

We were first given an explanation on how pysanky are written, but I think we are fairly knowledgeable on that front. They also have a special way of preserving the eggs by cracking it open along the middle to fully remove the yolk, then they line it with some sort of paper and then carefully put it back together. Not really sure why they don't blow them out, but there must be a good reason for it.

The museum has over 12,000 pysynkas in it. One of the most interesting pieces was the oldest pysanka in Ukraine at 500 years old. It was excavated recently in Lviv.

They had a section of pysanky that were all done with natural colors instead of egg dyes. Examples would be tree bark for brown, beet root for red/purple, and onion peel for orange.

There was one wall of pysanky that were all done with a pinning technique. This involves making a drop of wax on the egg and then spreading it in one direction with a pin. Then it is dipped in a single color of wax. Very cool technique, Brooke said she might try it one day.

Finally, they had a section with pysanky from all over the world that were provided to the museum by the ukrainian diaspora. Interesting ones were eggs from Australia with kangaroos on them and a replica of the Vegreville pysanka.

There were also Canadian coins in the shape of an egg (worth $20). There are only 5,000 in the world and of course Brooke immediately wants one (says she wants one for her birthday........how am I supposed to make that happen?).

At the end of the tour Brooke bought a book on the history of pysanky origins and pictures of pysanky from the various regions of Ukraine. She was quite thrilled.

Then it was off to see the Hutsulshyna museum (which will be in a second post).Read more