Layers of Spring

"As long as someone is creating a pysanka, the world will never end," Barb Duncan said, sharing a quote from a Babushka. Duncan, 83, from Jackson, visited Ukraine in the early 1990's as part of a mission trip to distribute the four gospels in schools, hospitals and orphanages in the Ukrainian language. Though Duncan has no Ukrainian heritage, she described the people of Ukraine to be "warm-hearted," "hospitable" and "very receptive" to their messages and finds joy in sharing an art that she is so passionate about.

A Ukrainian art form, pysanky egg-decorating is described by Duncan as creating "a composition on a small canvas: an egg." In pysanky, every color and symbol has a meaning -- butterflies symbolize innocence and beauty, birds symbolize good news and flowers symbolize love and wisdom.

Creating a pysanka requires a few common household materials: an egg, a pencil, vinegar, napkins, a candle, matches, beeswax, a kistka instrument and dyes. Although the process might seem daunting at first, it only requires following a few simple steps. By using dyes to give the eggs layers of color and beeswax to keep colors separated as other colors are applied, the resulting product is a multi-colored, symbolic pysanka.

A teacher by trade, Duncan has also been teaching pysanky around the area since her return from Ukraine. "I've been very privileged to do this," Duncan said. "I've taught all ages and it's my pleasure."

Her passion for teaching comes from her passion for art. "I love expression; I love the visual part," Duncan said. "I love that you can go back and read stories into your art."

Anna Lipska places her egg to dry after adding a coat of dye during a Ukrainian egg decorating class Tuesday at the Crisp Museum in Cape Girardeau.BEN MATTHEWS

Teaching four classes over this past weekend, at the Crisp Museum, she was able to teach over 75 students from diverse backgrounds about the Ukrainian tradition with some travelling from as far as Columbia, Missouri, and Anna, Illinois.

"It's not as complicated as I thought," Helen Towner said about her experience creating pysanky.