EASTER TIME , a new challenge by Inkido and pretty Polish eggs from Wycinanka

Inkido /Papercraft Scandinavia has a new challenge for you!

We have a fun prize for this challenge, all new stuff from our shop!

Knowing we have participants from all over the world we can not

 wait to see your projects.

This time our Mood Board should just inspired you to use some

 interesting elements specific to your country.

Folk art, costumes, national decorations, anything like this and

 please don't forget to tell us about it!

The was a time in my life I was very busy with ostrich eggs too :).

For my page I used eggs chipboards and flowers from friendly

 company from Poland, Wycinanka. Very Polish accent!

Beautiful memories collection and stamps from Inkido were used

to create my page.

I had several ideas what will I do for this challenge but since it's April and Easter coming I used the idea about very nice Polish tradition of painting /decorating eggs.

"There are many schools and techniques – some people paint them, others scratch or paste patterns on their surface, others still dye them in special extracts. But one thing has not changed for centuries – the tradition of decorating Easter eggs is alive and well all across Poland.

Easter eggs in Poland are commonly known as pisanki. These are usually chicken eggs covered with intricate decorations to look nice on Polish tables and in Polish homes during Easter. The name pisanki derives from the verb pisać which used to mean “draw” or “engrave patterns” (compare with Latin pictura). The first pisanki found by archaeologists in Poland date as far back as the 10^th century. Today, all decorated Easter eggs are called by this name, but there are different terms for the individual artistic techniques of making them.

Pisanki are created by drawing designs on egg shells with molten wax. Then, the eggs are dyed and the wax is removed, leaving a pattern on the surface. Lambs, crosses, flowers and other springtime motifs are the most popular symbols depicted on pisanki.

Kraszanki, also known as malowanki, are single-colour dyed eggs. To make the shells yellow andorange, you need to boil eggs in water with onion peels; brown hue will result from adding some oak bark; while dark hollyhock flower will give yourkraszanki a beautiful violet colour. Extracts of young rye, barley, grass or mistletoe leaves will dye your eggs green, and to get black colour use some alder bark. Eggs soaked in cornflower decoction will turn blue, in coffee – brown, in beetroot extract – dark red. In addition, there are plenty of chemical dyes available today.

Dyed eggs are traditionally covered with decorations, e.g. drawings made with a sharpened pin. Pisanki created this way are called skrobanki or drapanki. Eggs decorated with flower petals, pieces of cloth or paper cuttings are oklejanki andnalepianki, while those with their contents removed and shells painted are known as ażurki.

The Rev. Krzysztof Kluka Museum of Agriculture in Ciechanowiec (Podlasie region) houses Poland’s biggest collection of Easter eggs: close to two thousand pisanki from Poland and across the world. Apart from chicken or goose eggs, the Museum boasts artefacts made from penguin and seagull eggs, as well as minute hummingbird and giant ostrich eggs. The museum collection is based on over a thousand exhibits donated by Irena Stasiewicz-Jasiukowa and Jerzy Jasiuk from Warsaw, who spent thirty years collecting and cataloguing Easter eggs from across the country.

Monika Kucia"