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Teacher Tip-Options for Removing Wax

5/4/2014

2 Comments

 
There may be students who enjoy melting off the wax at the end of the process, while other would prefer another method.  This post is for you, the teacher to decide what methods you will have available. 

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EMBOSSING  GUN
  •  1 or 2 embossing guns seem to work nicely. When students are ready to remove  wax, send them to a table for a quick demonstration. The embossing  guns are nothing more than embossing tools that you can find in any paper crafting section of Michaels, Hobby Lobby, etc.  Look for 50% off coupons to get a good deal. 
  • Place the egg on a napkin in a small basket, and wipe it as the wax melts.   
  • or  lay the egg on a paper towel, cloth or tissue in a foil pie plate to absorb the wax.

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CARDBOARD COFFEE HOLDERS can be most useful when removing wax with a hair dryer or heat gun.  Line each section with a paper towel, coffee filter, etc., to absorb the wax. 

PictureThanks to Tetyana Solotska for the photo and idea
HEAT GUN SET UP 
I found this clever idea on social media.  The teacher of this pysanky class in Japan is not allowed to use any candle power, no flames allowed, during  class.  Instead she mounts a heat gun and is able to have students remove wax safely. 
  • You could instead of this mount, use a drying board to rest the egg on so your fingers don't get hot or damaged. 

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TOASTER OVEN
Pre-heat oven to 200-º or toaster oven
to 180 º
Place  finished pysanky into a silicone muffin pan. 
Time the eggs for 10 minutes, no longer. 
The wax collects in the bottom, and when it cools, you can just pop the excess wax out! 
You can also place a circle of paper toweling or a circle of coffee filter, in the bottom of each muffin space to absorb the wax (paper does not burn at low temperatures). 
Finally, remove and wipe each pysanky with a clean soft tissue, if a lot of wax remains, repeat the process.

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HAIR DRYER
What may be the safest way to remove  wax when teaching children, is a simple hair dryer.  When students are ready to remove  wax, send them to a table with 1 0r 2 hair dryers, for a quick demonstration.  Place the egg in a basket, on a coffee filter; the child may have a better control when removing wax. 

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ALCOHOL JEWELERS LAMP

Some recommend a small alcohol jewelers lamp. No soot and the adjustable flame is really low and hot. Safer than an open candle.  It is also useful when working out doors in spite of any wind. 

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Tea lites don't get hot enough for heating a kistka or removing wax from the egg.
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NO TAPERS! too long...

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Use short stubs only, while writing and removing the wax. 

CANDLES
Some classes provide candles for the students.  Others ask the students to bring a candle and holder; inevitably, they bring a taper(too long) or tea lite(not hot enough).  Be sure your students bring a candle stub. 
  • Pure beeswax candles would be optimum, because it doesn't  produce soot.  But they are expensive.   
  • Church Candles- churches may be generous and let you have their candle remnants.  These are often a higher content of beeswax along with the paraffin wax, are a good size for manipulating the kistka and the egg; and they are slower burning. 
PictureThis is like an old dish cloth.
When teaching I  use candles to remove wax. But more important is that I give each person a cut piece of cloth that has some "bite" to it; like in the picture. I feel that paper towels, TP, only pushes the wax around and does not lift it, so wax is left behind on the egg.   

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SCORCHED EGG
For a scorched egg a bottle of Goo Gon and a q-tip can remove the mark.  Try to demonstrate that the candle flame is adjacent to the egg; and the egg is not placed in the flame.  

2 Comments

Saving Dyes

5/4/2014

1 Comment

 
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 A question was asked on social media: 
 Do you save your dyes from year to year or do you make new ones every year?   if you store them, how do you recondition the colors? 


 IF YOU WRITE PYSANKY ALL YEAR LONG
  • Some people work on eggs all year long and continue to use the same batch of dyes.   Always check to see that  dyes are not moldy.  Some people strain the mold from the dyes and then heat and reuse it.   Tymothy  wrote to me and said that he "save dyes more than 6 months. All dyes usual stay in cooling room year-around".  
  • I prefer to  mix up a new batch and am certain that the jars that I use are sterilized in the dishwasher.   I never mix fresh dye powder into old dyes. There could be cross contaminants in the old dye. As a rule, if I am working for several hours on penciling in a design, I don't want my Pysanky to be ruined by weak dyes.  So I make sure that all the dyes are strong.   I see no need in saving dye from year to year.   We work in an art where the dye product is so cheap.  I also keep in stock those tried and true colors that I love using, so I have them when I need them.   
                "... your work will only be as good as the product you are using" 
  • If you only write eggs a couple of times a year,  mark the month/year on the jars when you mix them. Each time you use it,  you may need to add  1 Tbsp. vinegar  to recondition the dye . 
  • Cyn says:  "When I make new dyes I dump the old, scrub the jar in hot water and start again. I don't add new dye to old mainly because I work on duck eggs,  which I think contaminate the dyes more than the chickens eggs do. I also have a theory that as the dye molecules come out of the dye, they do not do so evenly, so what is left is not quite the original color. I have seen this with greens that over time become blue.  Also I think duck eggs pull a lot of dye out of the solution, further weakening the dye bath".
IF YOU TEACH CLASSES 
I teach pysanky classes and so I make up new batches of basic colors at the start of the season. I use 2 packets of each color per jar + 1 Tbsp.  of vinegar.  My dye table for teaching consists of 2 jars of yellow(as there can be a backup on the yellows), orange, traditional red(UGS Scarlet+ UGS Red), turquoise, deep blue, purple, brick red and black.   As people are beginning to learn the art, I want the colors to be vibrant for their eggs; and not have disappointed students.  

ADDITIONAL ISSUES WITH DYES
  • BLUE DYES
    Some blue dyes will not keep their original shades longer than a few weeks/months. You can still use, if you like the shade that it colors  or mix a new packet of dye. 
  • ORANGE / GOLD DYE
            I have always had issues with oranges and gold.  They tend to separate and congeal. 
            The best orange which I have settled with is TANGERINE, from pysankyusa.com 
            as it has no issues with the vinegar, and is a strong orange.  
1 Comment

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    by Maggie 

    I am of Ukrainian and Polish ancestry, 2nd generation American, who grew up in an ethnic household and neighborhood in Passaic, NJ.   Keeping with tradition, I learned to write pysanky as a young girl and continue to work on my passion for pysanky.  I teach classes and demonstrate the art year-round.

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