Ukrainian Design Book I [Paperback]

Natalie and Luba Perchyshyn; Ann Kmit; Loretta Luciow (Author), Ukrainian Gift Shop; Inc. (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1999

This is the first book of a series of previously unpublished patterns for the reader to recreate and enjoy. By breaking down the design to its simplest form, you will discover that you can create very complicated and magnificent patterns. As we describe each egg from beginning pencil lines to the final dye bath, the symbolism and color meanings will also be explained.

Product Details

• Paperback: 101 pages
• Publisher: Ukrainian Gift Shop; 5th edition (January 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0960250220
• ISBN-13: 978-0960250226
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #621,339 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good patterns, but you'll need more than this, February 22, 2004

By 

Carma "Carma" (Southwest USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ukrainian Design Book I (Paperback)

If you are a beginner to the art of pysanky, as I am, this book will not be enough to get you started. It gives brief directions and gets straight to the patterns, which are after all the point of this book. The cover has color photos of all the egg designs presented in the book, the inside cover has black-and-white pictures of the sides of the eggs; the pages of the book contain only black and white line drawings of the patterns. The patterns are given step-by-step with a line drawing for each step, but as a beginner I still find some of them a bit confusing. However, they are lovely designs and for more experienced decorators (which I hope to be very soon) I'm sure the patterns and instructions are adequate. Throughout the book, where a certain pattern is used, its symbolism is briefly explained. So, if you are a beginner, get a good starter book - I am finding Jane Pollak's Decorating Eggs to be an excellent learning and inspiration resource.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars love it for and one just beginning to soem one doing it for soem time, June 20, 2009

By 

Caralee V. Pikaitis - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ukrainian Design Book I (Paperback)

i have been doing pysanky for 6 years and still do designs in this book it is the best book i ever bought for pysanky and have stil not done all teh designs in it love this book

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Valued Folk Reference, April 18, 2009

By 

a gentle sound (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ukrainian Design Book I (Paperback)

When I was in "art school" both undergrad and master's I recall long talks about "folk art" by teachers who really made no folk art, and to some extent seemed not only distant from it but above it. And then too heard talks by art historians who made clearly no art at all. Meanwhile in my life I was discovering the craft in the area of West Virginia I lived, learning how to make many things from thumb pianos to eggs, to corn husk dolls and apple dolls, from tatting to lace, batik, candle making, to crocheting hats and assimilating who people were, and where I was, into concrete making and doing, especially in food. I loved it.

An excellent child's life happily including the making of Ukrianian eggs, pysanky. If you do not know the form just look on-line a minute. It will amaze you, if you see it in person you will be more amazed. It is said within the Ukrainian people as long as a pysanka is being made the world will never end, so at least for the last few weeks I've returned to the technique to make the eggs I loved as a child.
From the perspective of my fine art teachers folk art took on a kind of craft kitsch. But I, living in people still making in WVa, tended to find the dividing line around money. I still do, as I see the craft and making disappearing with newspapers and other artifacts of American life that I value. Time is constrained, people are on-line too much, making requires funds, plus the drive to create has shifted away I think from things like this. Worrisome. What people maintained from homelands, made in their lives still seems to survive though in food. At least we have that. I think the secret we miss is teaching the young traditions like this and then sharing it with others. It is something you can do with a modest investment, this book can help you set it up and you gain a wonderful sense of the doing, of accomplishment and beauty plus share something from other cultures. I find this the real way to become culturally aware. Make the crafts, adapt it to yourself.

This said, this book introduces pysanky, a technique of decorating an egg through a wax resist and dye process that always reminds me of batik. It is a wonderful resource as I no longer live in West Virginia or near any makers of this art and cannot see nor ask them a makers questions. The net is providing visual resource -say through You Tube, but I do prefer a book. I like to read, re-read, look, consider, share in book form. I found the text remarkably useful. I've had the book at least 20 years. My mother bought me this one as a wedding present. Just today reading more carefully I learned a new thing. Use an extra orange dye bath to rinse the eggs between color applications. Some colors are hard to apply after other colors. I had sort of come to that realization making the eggs but this confirmed it. Another tip that helped me, how to go back to a white background with a bleach rinse. You usually end in black. Now I know how to do something different.

The book does detail diagrammatic instructions on how to make traditional eggs.Very easy to follow. I do not do these, actually, because I am trained in art and as divergent a person as it gets, but I appreciate this none the less for what it is preserving and passing along of this cultural tradition. Ukrainian eggs mark births, weddings, times in life. They hold a kind of symbolic meaning, insight into a people and into the values they hold. This book presents this very simply, with an instructive purpose.


I started making these at 8. I taught myself for the most part watching some ladies at the mall in my hometown. In that way the beeswax and the process adapted into an Appalachian, me, and her relationship to making, design, to life and what we do passing our days. This spring break returning to read this was lovely. I've ordered from the shop recently that produced this book and these designs, you get excellent supplies, prompt, high quality. I got twelve goose eggs there. Delightful to decorate. I wish them many many more years. A great resource. The shop must be a wonder to see. Do not hesitate to get this.