How did you become interested in doing the pysanky eggs?
Van Wagoner: Well, when I started teaching, I knew the basics of teaching art — all the different drawing, painting, sculpture. But my goal was each year I would learn one or two new processes. And back in the late ’70s, early ’80s, I saw an article in the Detroit Free Press about this, and a lady in Detroit was actually selling the supplies … she’s the one that I used to get the supplies from, the dyes, (and) kistkas, or styluses. And so I just started learning it and started teaching it to the students. G: What is the process of actually dying or creating the decoration on the egg? VW: Once the egg has dried (after removing the white and yolk by means of a blas-fix bellows system and rinsing it out), you want to clean it off. You take a little bit of toilet paper, just because it’s cheaper than Kleenex, put a little bit of vinegar on it and clean it. And then from then on I like to use rubber gloves because the oil from your hands can actually leave marks on the eggs … the oils
