Happy Easter

It's an odd sensation, in a way.  Facebook friends are all posting about the resurrection.  And our church definitely observed Easter this morning...but for most of "this" world...here in Ukraine, the Orthodox Calendar rules and according to the Orthodox Calendar, next Sunday is Easter.

No matter.  Just means we get to focus our attention especially on the empty tomb for two weekends.

It was interesting going to church this morning with "Easter" on my mind but the people we were seeing on the street were carrying "greenery" in recognition of Palm Sunday.

Speaking of Easter...of Easter Eggs anyway...Yesterday, we took a tour of 3-4 local castles.  One of them is occupied by a couple of Ukrainian National Artist.  We were privileged to visit their studio and observe (the wife) making her own patented Pysanka-type Eggs.

Here's a really BAD picture of one of them:

Ah, but here's the kicker.  Even with the bad picture quality, you can tell it's extremely detailed, right?

She dyes the eggs for 3 hours somehow using Onion Skins.  I'm guessing there must be some sort of strange chemical reaction that causes the color to be added in layers, like eletroplating.  Here's why I think that:

That cool image is created by her scraping the red color off with shards of razor blades.  The image is created entirely by shading...she can scrape all the way down to the white egg shell...or stop somewhere in between.  That's it.  I guess she might sketch out what she wants to create ahead of time, but I didn't see any drawing on the eggs she was creating in the studio.  

It takes one whole month to create one of these eggs.  Now that's an Easter Egg!