I learned to write pysanky at Polish Art Center in 2019, where my wife Gabrielle and I took one of their introductory classes during Easter.  I do not have any Ukrainian or Polish heritage in my family, however my wife's family has ancestors from Chernihiv, Ukraine.

My heritage is primarily French, and in the summer of 2022 Gabby and I took a trip to Paris and the Loire Valley for vacation.  I had been looking for inspiration to create my own pysanky designs, and I finally found that inspiration in France!  I toured the Cluny Museum of the Middle Ages, and I found dozens of designs that I thought would make excellent elements in a pysanka.  I've started to create my own designs based on the art I found that represents my heritage.  In this way I hope to find my own niche that represents me, while respecting the origins of pysanky.

I have also pushed myself by writing designs from the late Taras Horodetsky, and I've found that challenging myself with his works has greatly improved my writing abilities.

email: mozbrad@gmail.com

facebook: brad.foucher

When I was very young, it attended a Pysanky Class at a local church with my cousin.  I did not write any eggs, but I watched.  Not long after that, I took my first class from a local artist named Pauline at a rec center.  From her, I learned the basics of writing eggs.  

Over the years, I still practiced the art but not venturing too far from the basic designs.  Which means that I did not write more than 2 to 3 designs for YEARS.  After a brief hiatus while I was in college and starting life, I started to attend classes at the same church that introduced me to the craft.  There I learned I could use a pencil (game changer) and that I could empty eggs prior to writing them.  With this knowledge, a new world was opened up and I was able to move on for the 2/3 designs I had been doing.  

I do not write pysanky year round but I would like that to change.  I have expanded the craft room that I shred with my mother to include my pysanky supplies.  She recently passed and still using this room to craft allows me to still feel close to her.  I love the art and find it to be a stress reliever from life.  With my time away from egging, I am a District Manager for Dollar General.  I have a side hustle, selling dog treats and primitive crafts at craft shows.  Plus, I spend time with my fur-children, Luci, Lettie and Lola.

email: jennifer.pynkala@yahoo.com

facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jennifer.pynkala#

Jon Ball (aka JB) discovered his passion for pysanky in 2019 through a community workshop in Calgary. What started as a casual interest quickly grew into a fervent hobby, with Jon creating several pysanky each year, culminating in his dedication to crafting them year-round by 2021. Residing in Banff, Alberta, Jon draws inspiration from his picaresque surroundings, often exploring the natural beauty of the area with his partner Susan and their dog, Panque (affectionately known as Pancake). A background in pure maths and mapping seems to have been a good foundation for a fledgling Egger. This will be his third pysanky retreat – the first two were right here at Soyuzivka, in 2022 and 2023. 2024 got off to an unusual start for JB, with a diagnosis and subsequent treatment of tonsil cancer! 

email: jonball@email.com

facebook: Jonathanball612

instagram: @jonathanball612

I am the mother of 4 wonderful adult children and the proud grandmother of three darling boys and a precious baby girl. I work as the Director of Student Services at a local Catholic college. I started writing pysanky back in Lent of 1991, when a Ukrainian friend of mine invited me to an egg “play date” at her home, and I was immediately hooked. For many years I did eggs all on my own or with my children during Lent, using books and catalogs for inspiration. In the spring of 2011 I was delighted to discover the online pysanky community, from which I have learned so much! I now write pysanky year round in my “spare time”, and love how peaceful and relaxing I find it. I particularly enjoy knowing that I can offer my egging time as a prayer for the intentions of the recipient, adding a spiritual dimension to this art that I love.  

email: k.t.m.hanlon@gmail.com

facebook: karen.hanlon.71

Linda Lishchuk Hupert has been doing Pysanky for over 50 years. She learned once as a child in her Ukrainian Youth Group but didn’t start doing Pysanky until High School and hasn’t stopped since. She has taught at The Ukrainian Museum in Cleveland for over 30 years and given many demonstrations in the community including the Natural History Museum, Botanical Gardens and Beck Center. Her eggs have been for sale and display at Hixson’s in Lakewood for 39 years for his Annual Easter Egg Show. Linda has traveled the East Coast to various Festivals displaying her eggs. She was a guest artist at  alt Disney World Epcot Center for 8 years.

Linda has been teaching classes at Pysanky retreats in Pennsylvania, Arkansas and even Toronto  Canada over the past 8 years and is now one of the two hosts of Pysanky on the River POTR in Berea, OH. We will be planning our 4 th one this year. It’s the weekend after Columbus Day. Since she doesn’t have enough to do (sarcastic) she is now the Treasurer of the Berea Fine Arts Club and promotes Pysanky art thru the club at Kid’s summer Art Camp and several Fine Art Shows in the Cleveland area.

In 2020 Linda took over as President of the Ohio Egg Artists Guild. This year they are celebrating the 50 the Anniversary of the Elegant Egg and Fine Art and Craft Show on Palm Sunday Weekend.

website: www.planetegg.org

email: planetegg@yahoo.com

facebook: Linda Lishchuk Hupert

As a 2nd generation Lemko Ukrainian and Polish American, I grew up in an ethnic household and neighborhood.  My mother surprised me, at age 12, with a visit to our Ukrainian Center, where I watched a man take a raw egg shell and write a perfect circle of wax around the shell’s equator.  My love of writing pysanky began that day!  In the ’60-‘70s during Lent, we were expected to keep Good Friday quiet, with no TV or radio. I spent every Good Friday making pysanky, keeping the day reverent, while Mother prepared traditional foods, to be blessed by the priest on Holy Saturday. 

For the past nine years, the Scratch method has taken a strong hold on my creative and spiritual energy.  I have published a ‘how-to’ 36 page spiral book on the basics of this method. This is my class handout,  PLAYBOOK#1 KROSZONKI-DRYAPANKY FOR BEGINNERS, ©Maggie Tarris, 2023.

As a folk egg artist and teacher, I have taught Ukrainian pysanky writing at Peters Valley Craft Center, Markeim Art Center, Appel Farm Arts & Music Center, and Triple Oaks, Blissful Yoga Studio, the Church of the Nativity, all in New Jersey. In addition, Fletcher Farm School in VT, River Arts School in NH and the PysankyUSA Retreats, in PA.  I have demonstrated for Peters Valley Craft Center, the New Jersey State Fair and the NJ Burlington County Historical Society.  My pysanky were displayed at the Peters Valley Gallery in Leyton, NJ., Markeim Art Center and the Morris Museum, in Morristown, NJ.  I am again delighted to be teaching for a third year at the Catskill Pysanky Workshop, NY.

email:      mtarris135@yahoo.com

My name is Mia (rhymes with hiya)  Sohn

I'm a customer service rep in real life and a grandmother. 

I've been writing Pysanky for 45 years.

I took a night class when my daughter was an infannt, I fell in love and have never stopped.

I love color and am inspired by nature and by music

I have taught at several libraries on Long Island and in Upstate, NY and I taught for years at the PysankyUSA Retreat.

I  taught basic Pysanky, how to work on emu eggs, how to draw circles and saddlebags without a grid, how to prep an ostrich egg, how to draw a saddlebag with a geometric rosette, how to make ostrich shell jewelry and hair clips and how to etch a design on a brown egg.

email:      no1eggartist@frontiernet.net

Originally I am from Ukraine (Lviv). I have been living in California (Roseville) with my family for the last 10 years. 

I have a bachelor degree in Textile Art and a master degree in History of Art but all my professional life I’ve been working as an Art teacher (23 years). I admire all my talented students and their creative ideas! 

First I tried to write Pysankas when I was 10 years old Art school student. From the age of 11, I started sharing my skills with others. At first, it was a sister or a best friend. But every year there was at least one new person whom I taught or inspired to write Pysankas. 

I’m using traditional methods, patterns and elements but combine them with my personal style. My method to write Cossack Baroque Embroidery patterns on Pysanka helps to remember the glorious times of Cossacks in Ukraine. Double pysankas I call “Pysanka with an open heart” and they are in a way how I open my heart to the World. 

website:  Sofiya Ohorodnyk Studio

email: s.ohorodnyk@gmail.com

facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sofiya.ohorodnyk