Shouldn't you be posting images of real Polish Easter eggs (pisanki)?
I used to make them with my mother most Easters as a kid. My mom's came out looking like the link, mine not so much.
Those are awesome, teraz! Is there some trick to it, or do you just have to paint every little detail by hand?
1: We used to make those in Russian class in hs! (Teacher was Ukrainian.) Fun with wax and candles!
We tried to make those when I was a kid -- mine were always terrible. It's layers of color blocked off with wax. You plan out your egg beforehand -- white areas, yellow areas, red areas, black areas -- in order from light to dark. Then you cover the white bits with melted wax, and dip in yellow dye. Then cover the yellow bits with wax, and dip in red dye, then cover the red bits with wax, and dip in black dye. When you melt all the wax off, all your colors are visible.
We are totally trying that this year.
Paint isn't really the right word there's this stick with a little metal cup with a hole in it. You fill it with wax and you start drawing, then you soak it in a dye. The stuff that got waxed stays white or, if you dipped it in dye before waxing, whatever color that dye was. You can also do nice curlycues using a pin instead of the stylus thingie.
There is something a little wrong in the fact that early on in the googleimage results for 'pisanki' you get an x rated image.
You have to admire the commitment that would batik a pornographic image onto an egg with beeswax and dye.
7: Yes, it's well established that one should not masturbate to something that's dyed.
Use a pin stuck into a pencil eraser for the drawing tip and a candle for the wax source. Figure-and-ground with a single color is pretty easy; multiple colors with covered areas take a special tool.
We used corks rather than erasers but that was the basic system until my mom found a real kit someplace. And now I'm suddenly tempted to spend my Saturday afternoon making pisanki.
We know those as Ukrainian Easter Eggs. Ukrainian Orthodox churches will generally sell the supplies (in addition to the wax pen, you need bees wax and special stronger dyes) around this time of year. It's time consuming but lots of fun.
to spend my Saturday afternoon making pisanki.
IYKWIMAITYD
6: You fill it with wax and you start drawing,
The real trick to it is to use the ABSOLUTE MINIMUM amount of wax, both in the metal cone, and on the egg itself. It is very tempting to heat the cone up and jam it in the wax to get lots of wax in there, and then heat it again to make the wax run. But then you wind up with lots of wax trickling all over your egg, plus usually some ash from the burning. And once there is wax in an area where you didn't want wax? You're pretty much screwed then, tovarisch.
However, if you do mess up your intended design, remember the words of the Ukrainian lady who taught my (not Orthodox) church youth group how to do pisanki: "There are no mistakes, only new patterns." Helluva Zen thought for Ukrainians, but then I guess you'd get to be kinda fatalistic after awhile.
In the advice category: boil your eggs before you start dying and waxing. If you feel bad about destroying your pretty designs for eating purposes, you can just leave them out and the insides will shrivel up into a little hard ball. The things will last indefinitely (as decoration, not food). Or you can just blow your eggs.
Thanks to Stanley, I have now looked up the wikipedia entry for that Led Zeppelin song, which I had never known how to pronounce before. And now I am listening to Led Zeppelin. Today is awesome.
16: If you blow them into a dish, you're all ready for breakfast. Or cake.
You also can just use a white crayon, but that's less exciting than the whole candles & beeswax scenario.
Another method is to cover the whole egg in wax and then scratch patterns onto it before dying it or dying it again.
My mom used to carefully clear out the insides and use the egg shells as jello molds. You have to use super concentrated jello if you want it to hold its shape, though. But very pretty when peeled.
20- I've never been able to get that to work. The residue from the wax is enough to block to dye even after it's been scratched off. However, I've also noticed that the different colors of Ukranian dye packets have very different amounts of adhesivity so maybe I just tried it with the wrong colors and gave up too fast.
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That was fun. Big meeting saying that the budget's been cut 10%, the salary freeze that's been in place for the last four years will continue indefinitely, but to make it up to us they're introducing a new, much harsher set of performance review standards.
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That was fun. Big meeting saying that the budget's been cut 10%, the salary freeze that's been in place for the last four years will continue indefinitely, but to make it up to us they're introducing a new, much harsher set of performance review standards.
At least you had a meeting where they admitted it. Here, because of funding cuts, we're facing a $200 million shortfall on our campus. But when someone asks, "Hey, what's the plan? How are we going to deal with this? Are we going to be furloughed (or worse) again?" we're told not to worry about it. Meanwhile, they keep denying qualified people promotions, citing unwritten standards of excellence that people have never been held to before, which seems like a half-assed way to keep the deficits from growing. Morale has never been higher!
23: "You'll get nothing and like it!"
Anyone in the NY area seized with the desire to dye eggs like this, I've bought supplies in the past from this place, on East 7th street. (Overcome by nostalgia for my youth, I tried doing this with my kids when they were much too young, which is why I remember the place. I wonder if we still have the stuff kicking around.)
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I just ran into the NYT viewing-limit on this computer (not my regular one which has sponsored access), cleared browser information, and voila, I got back in. Alternatively, I imagine an incognito window in Chrome would work.
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I've been trying like hell to hit the NYT viewing limit, but no luck so far.
27-28: New York Times? Isn't that the sleazy rag that did the trailer park gang rape apologist story recently?
Why are we trying to find ways to read it for free, exactly?
29: Um, because they're still better at summarizing new happenings than most other sources. (And in this case because I'm procrastinating.)
Personally I just want to makes sure I understand all the ways I can fail to give them money.
I don't think it's appropriate, by the way, to imply that the NYT is a big bunch of rape apologists and that anyone who supports them is supporting that practice. The article was loathsome, but it indicts society just as much as the NYT institutionally; see also Hirschman.
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I'm sure it is, ma'am, but your tattoo is horrifying.
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That would be a design challenge for a tattoo artist. Can't say that the tattooer in question nailed it, though.
37: Didn't draw it that well, either.
The last memorable female back tattoo that I saw was of a plump cartoon baby giving the secret devil sign. It was pretty striking.
I rather like 36; nice combination of realism, Art Nouveau, and standing by one's opinion.
I don't know, on the NYT front, while there appear to be numerous ways to circumvent the paywall, I haven't tried any of them yet, and I must say it's interesting to be without them for all of three days so far. Am I missing something? Does it feel like I am? Not really.*
Contrary to a number of commentators on the subject, I don't think they suck because they want people to pay for something that was once free. Rather, the pay structure is not sensible and seems designed to restructure the Times' readership toward those who are enamored enough of the paper that their eyeballs are worth advertisers' dollars. I can't deny that they may be right there: I blocked ads as it was when I read the Times.
Here's the thing: I'm disinclined, at the moment anyway, to bypass the paywall because I'd be interested to see what would happen if their page hits declined precipitously. They seem more interested in producing results for advertisers than in being the 'paper of record' any longer. If people migrate elsewhere, in large numbers, for news, what does the NYT think about that? Ultimately, I just want them to adjust the pay structure for the online subscription.
* I have had a couple of conversations already in which a friend said, "David Brooks's column today was actually not half bad." To which I reply, "Oh? I'm not reading the Times any more, so that's out of my purview." It gets awkward.
Good grief -- that was longer than I thought.
36. She's going to be pleased with that when she's 50, isn't she?
I don't see any business model which allows traditional newspapers to survive in that role, online or off. If you want the news headlines, you go to a radio/TV site and read the headlines, not the offensive bullshit that follows them; if you want commentary, you know a blogger.
This is why the Guardian appears to be converging rapidly on the Huffington Post.
You people and your fancy eggs. We made plain old American eggs and we liked it.
Can't say that the tattooer in question nailed it, though.
How do you know?
48: She doesn't know; that's why she can't say it. Though if the coloring is accurate, I wouldn't nail it either.
49: apo is ineligible to command the starship Enterprise...
I wonder if she has the same problem some people have with big windows (you know, birds always flying into the reflections they think are real birds).
I don't have a problem with big windows ....laydeez.
[I]f you want commentary, you know a blogger.
I suppose I'm dating myself, but, pace whatever the latest argument to appeasement of N/ick D/enton may be, I'm not particularly looking forward to an age when there's nothing to read about current affairs but the bitter fruits of grudge and dudgeon.
