This pysanka is a diasporan pysanka, designed and written by myself. The imagery is deeply personal and references meaningful and traditional objects from my Ukrainian wedding ceremony.

The centre band down the middle of the egg features the pattern from the “rushnyk” or embroidered tapestry that was used during the ceremony and placed under the “Korovai” or wedding bread. The band on the pysanka features yellow flowers and intricate details of crosses and dots to represent the embroidery seen on the rushnyk.

The front face of the egg includes the Korovai itself with the same intricate details as on my real Korovai such as grapes, two doves, wheat, rings, flowers, and berries. These traditional symbols on the Korovai represent wishes for the newlyweds: grapes=to be fertile and plentiful; wheat =prosperity and bounty; the rings= eternal union and the joining of two souls, doves= represent the newlywed couple; the flowers= beauty and happiness in life.

The reverse face of the egg includes my wedding bouquet. A large and bountiful assortment of colourful flowers such as peonies, anemones, delphinium, dahlias and tiny chamomile of miniature daisy with a red ribbon tying it all together.

Some special techniques employed in this pysanka design include spot dying to try and capture the depth of the floral bouquet with different botanical tones. There is also a gradient dying technique used to highlight and emphasize the bouquet with a saturated blue edge that also brings contrast to the decorative border.