
Writing Pysanky
DATE
Saturday
TIME
3:00

20
LOCATION
110 Pottstown Pike, Chester Springs, PA 19425

Instructor
Jennifer Domal
Jennifer Domal is an award-winning contemporary folk artist, educator, and Master Artisan of the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen. She was first introduced to the art of writing pysanky at the age of three, learning to use beeswax to create intricate designs on eggshells. Jennifer’s varied career began with a degree from West Chester University in Music Education—Percussion, graduating cum laude with Honors. After years of encouragement from fellow artists to pursue her talent in writing pysanky, she returned to West Chester University for her BFA in Studio Arts with a concentration in Sculpture and Crafts. She has taught at the Chester County Art Association, the Center for the Creative Arts, and holds workshops for various organizations. Jennifer’s Lithuanian-Polish heritage is a large part of her craft. While she faces an unusual challenge 4for a pysanky artist—she is highly allergic to eggs, and must take great precaution when blowing and preparing fresh eggs—her dedication to the art form impresses peers, curators, and collectors alike. Learning the traditional folk art, designs, and customs around the family’s kitchen table has evolved into her exquisitely detailed batik egg art and folk pysanky. Jennifer has exhibited her art in museums and galleries throughout Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Her artwork is sought by international private collectors, including in Japan, Australia, France, Belgium, England, the Netherlands, and Italy. Pieces are curated in collections at Penn State Great Valley, Blue Ball Barn as part of the Delaware Folk Art Collection, and others. Jennifer currently lives in Chester County, Pennsylvania, where she sources most of her components locally. She teaches drawing, sculpture, and pysanky writing, and delights in combining science with art. She is inspired by her menagerie of dogs, cats, a pond full of fish, and her husband, not necessarily in that order.
About the Demonstration
Traditional pysanky and batik egg art both use melted beeswax and dye to create patterns and designs on eggshells in a technique similar to batik. Jennifer Domal will show you how and she starts with a blown eggshell and writes lines of wax using different sized styluses. The eggshell is dipped into dye and the process repeated until the work is put into a final dye bath. The wax is removed to reveal the intricate, colorful artwork. There are often surprises in creating a pysanky or batik egg since the artist is not able to erase.