The 2018 Incredible Eggs Calendar
It’s here…the new calendar filled beautiful egg pictures and I am honored to report you will find photos of my work along with pysanky and batik-style eggs from all over the world. Click here to get the purchasing details and to preview each page.
Christmas Egg Class
December 3, 2016–9:30 to 11:30 AM at Carmichael Park Clubhouse
5750 Grant Avenue, Carmichael, California 95608
Have some fun learning how to use wax and dyes to turn a real chicken egg into a colorful Christmas ornament. You can sign up online for this class through Carmichael Recreation and Park District. Scroll to the bottom of that page for more info.
Save the Date!
It’s never too soon to start planning for summer fun. And if you want fun, friendship and unhurried time to explore the art of pysanky then this retreat should go right to the top of your list. Beginner to expert skill levels are all welcome.
Pysanky USA Retreat 2016
July 12-16, 2016
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
A little unabashed advertising here…I will be teaching “Quilt-inspired Eggs” and “Egg Mosaics” classes at this retreat and there are lots of other great classes by a variety of very experienced teachers.
Here is the website for more info.
The Northern California Eggstravaganza
The Northern California Eggstravaganza
March 5 and 6, 2016, at the Crown Plaza Northeast, 5321 Date Avenue, Sacramento, CA 95841.
This annual egg show and sale is coming quickly so mark your calendars now. I will be teaching two classes on Saturday, March 5, as well as selling pysanky eggs and egg jewelry in the showroom all weekend.
Click here for details on these classes.
Arts Camp 2015
Another God-breathed, fun-filled week at Arts Camp at Oak Hills Church in Folsom, California.
International Festival in Rancho Cordova
Saturday, May 16, 2015 from 5 to 9 PM
Village Park, Rancho Cordova
Let the world come to you with lots of fun displays, performances and food from many different countries at this kid-friendly iFest 2015 . I’ll be there demonstrating how to create pysanky so be sure to stop by and say hi.
More details here.
It’s Official
I’m going to summer camp again! This year’s Pysanky USA Retreat in Pennsylvania promises to be bigger and better than ever. I’ll be teaching a couple of classes and taking a few from other teachers but more importantly I’ll get to reconnect with “egging friends” from across the country. For five days the outside world falls away as I explore new ideas, learn new techniques, and catch up with others who share my love of pysanky. I can hardly wait!
Sound interesting? This event is a great place for all skill levels, from “I’ve never dyed an egg before” to “I’ve been creating these eggs for 30 years.” If you want to join the fun, here’s the link for more details.
Egg Classes in April
Want to learn how to create these lovely eggs? Along with the Ukrainian Heritage Club of Northern California I am teaching an introductory and a “next step” class on Saturday, April 5, 2014.
La Sierra Community Center
5325 Engle Road
Carmichael, CA 95608
Introductory Class–9:30-11:45 AM
No experience necessary for this class.
Next Step Class–1-3:30 PM
If you’ve made these eggs before and want to learn a new technique, this is the class for you.
You can get more information and sign up through Carmichael Recreation and Park District or call 916 485-5322.
Calendar Girl
I know this is a bit late but I’m Miss February, for the third year running! Or at least one of my eggs is Miss February. Click here to see a preview of all the wonderful photos and find out how you can order a 2014 calendar for your very own.
Creating beauty on eggshells can be a time-consuming and lonely process but thanks to modern technology I am part of a worldwide egg art family. To me, this calendar is tangible proof that even though separated by miles, we are a community connected through our art.
Rancho Cordova iFest 2013
Saturday, May 18, 2013 5-9 PM
Rancho Cordova iFest 2013
This fifth annual international festival celebrates music, food, art, dance and more from many lands. Come visit me at my table to see examples of pysanky and how they are made.
Village Green Park
3141 Bridgeway
Rancho Cordova, CA 95670
Quilts and Eggs
The Art & Soul Gallery sits in the lobby of my home church, Oak Hills, and we rotate art through there every couple of months or so. Currently we’re showing a collection of quilts by Debby Schnabel, a local artist, and the colors, variety, and workmanship are stunning to say the least.
I had the privilege of “hanging” this gallery, which simply means I took part in arranging the quilts and physically mounting them on the walls for display. It usually takes two or three people to do the work of hanging a new gallery. This time Debby Schnabel, the quilt artist, and my painter friend, Randy Blasquez, formed the hanging team.
Just as we do with paintings we laid all the quilts out on the floor to arrange them by color. Then came the process of figuring out how much space we had and making sure we had a good flow to the whole display. Finally, we mounted the quilts on the wall. Whew. Job well done.
As we worked, I noticed both Debby and Randy had an eye for color and scale with those large quilts that I didn’t have. And both could spot a quilt hung out of level quickly. It was a different experience for me. My eye works best in tiny details. Working with objects this large, I found I was out of my element.
I love seeing those quilts on the gallery wall, but I really loved coming home to my studio and working on my newest series of quilt-inspired pysanky. To each her own!
Lightning Does Strike Twice!
Last year I had the privilege of seeing a photo of my eggs printed in a beautiful calendar featuring pysanky from artists across the globe. My son, Ryan, did an amazing job photographing a collection of my red eggs which was the featured photo for February.
This year I am thrilled to announce another photo of my eggs appears in a calendar…and once again it’s for February. Click on Incredible Eggs 2013 Calendar to get more information and preview all the pictures.
I guess now I really am “Miss February!”
Pumpkin Choir
Sometimes I let go of my serious side and just play with eggs and dyes and wax. This is one of those times! Happy Halloween all.
My People
Pysanky artists seem to be few and far between here on the West Coast. This art originated in the Eastern European area of Ukraine, Poland, Russia, Lithuania etc. and immigrants brought it to this country. Like my dad’s family, most of them settled on the East Coast or across Canada and not so many came to central California where I live now. As a result it is rare for me to meet others who share my love for creating this type of egg art.
Thankfully the internet has put other artists within my reach. Just over a year ago I joined an online pysanky chat group and began learning new techniques and tips from our discussions. I thought I knew a lot about creating these eggs already, but found a whole new world of fun to explore. These new-found friends willingly shared knowledge and sparked a renewed excitement in me and my work.
A couple of weeks ago I had the amazing opportunity to meet some of these people face to face at a pysanky retreat. Forty of us spent time hanging out together at a beautiful retreat center in Dalton, Pennsylvania. I walked into that place never having met anyone but immediately I felt like I was among “my people.” 
The names I knew became faces as we all spoke the same language and got excited about the same things. Together we took classes, admired each others’ work, freely shared ideas, and continued our own projects.
In short, I lived and breathed pysanky.
I think I just got a taste of heaven.
Happy Blues
In case you couldn’t tell, I love the color blue. For as long as I can remember, blue has brought me joy. In this colorful world, those calm and peaceful blues always capture my eye first. That’s why it has been such a pleasure to immerse myself in creating a batch of blue eggs these last few months. In order to stretch myself artistically, I chose a limited number of simple design elements yet combined them uniquely for each egg. What do you think?
Etching
Normally the designs on these eggs fill the eye with color but if I use the same wax-resist technique in a slightly different way the resulting monotones are surprisingly beautiful.
A bit of explanation here. A brown chicken egg is only brown on the outer surface. Just underneath that dark layer it gets progressively lighter and lighter until the shell become nearly white. To decorate these eggs I use acid to eat away layers of shell and reveal what’s underneath. And by protecting my design with beeswax, I can preserve the darker colors on the finished egg.
As I worked on a sample etched egg for a class, God began to whisper a metaphor to me about the process of etching. Acid is tough on the egg, but getting down to the pure white layer is the only way to reveal the beautiful design created by the darker outer shell.
This is the part that started me thinking. Often when life doesn’t go as planned, I grumble and complain. I like my familiar, dark “outer layers” and that “acid” in my everyday life interferes with my personal agenda. But if I sit in the moment instead of avoiding the hard stuff, I come away changed in some way…hopefully for the better. God can make my deep, dark outer layer into a beautiful, intricate design if I give Him space to work. He doesn’t take away my faults, He just transforms them into a thing of beauty. Wow, that’s a lot to ponder.
But I Repeat Myself
I think I have a high tolerance for repetition. Doing the same things over and over is just part of my job as a mom. Every day the beds must be made (mine, not the boys’s…I gave up on that a long time ago), dishes need cleaning, meals prepared and on and on it goes. There’s weekly laundry and floor cleaning, and monthly chores. Add spring cleaning and fall leaf raking. The list goes on. It’s a never ending cycle of tasks that keep repeating over and over, year in and year out.
I’d be lying if I said it never bothers me, but most of the time it just is, and I keep moving forward to getting 
one more thing done for the day. I never thought much about it before but one of the key aspects of the art of pysanky is the way designs repeat over and over on a single egg. The beauty of the finished egg has a lot to do with its symmetry and the comforting cycle of patterns stretched over the constantly changing curve of the egg. This repetition not only gives the viewer something predictable to expect and enjoy but it also gives the artist a chance to get it right through practice.
As an artist, if I never have to repeat anything, I never get to improve my technique, refine my hand/eye coordination, expand my use of color, or give free flight to my imagination. Repetition can be a prison if I allow it to, but it can also be a teacher and a friend…in art and life as well.
Eggs by Teresa 