Peasants often made a crude wooden tool with a pig-bristle fixed to the end. In earliest times, it would have been a thorn. Today pysanky writers use a copper, metal or electric" kistka".
A kistka or kystka is the name given to the stylus (tool) used in making pysanky in some areas of western Ukraine and in Poland. It is also referred to as a pysachok and pysaltse. It generally consists of a small metal reservoir with a fine tip/opening on a wooden or plastic handle. Wax is scooped into the reservoir, heated, and then this stylus is used to write with wax on an egg's shell.
Later styluses were prepared at home by taking a thin piece of brass and wrapping it around a needle, forming a hollow cone. This cone was then attached to a small stick (willow was preferred) with wire, string or horsehair.
Flammable materials – string, horsehair – were often used in the creation of styluses. The use of candles in pysankarstvo is a fairly recent useage. Candles were a luxury item in rural Ukraine, and so not used in the traditional pysanka-making process. Instead the stylus was dipped into molten wax, rather than being placed into a flame; so flammable substances like horsehair and string could be used to affix the metal cone to the handle.
In Lemko regions, which often preferred a drop-pull method of pysanky, making a stylus was much simpler. A pin or small nail would be driven into the end of a small stick. Somewhat like in this picture.
A kistka or kystka is the name given to the stylus (tool) used in making pysanky in some areas of western Ukraine and in Poland. It is also referred to as a pysachok and pysaltse. It generally consists of a small metal reservoir with a fine tip/opening on a wooden or plastic handle. Wax is scooped into the reservoir, heated, and then this stylus is used to write with wax on an egg's shell.
Later styluses were prepared at home by taking a thin piece of brass and wrapping it around a needle, forming a hollow cone. This cone was then attached to a small stick (willow was preferred) with wire, string or horsehair.
Flammable materials – string, horsehair – were often used in the creation of styluses. The use of candles in pysankarstvo is a fairly recent useage. Candles were a luxury item in rural Ukraine, and so not used in the traditional pysanka-making process. Instead the stylus was dipped into molten wax, rather than being placed into a flame; so flammable substances like horsehair and string could be used to affix the metal cone to the handle.
In Lemko regions, which often preferred a drop-pull method of pysanky, making a stylus was much simpler. A pin or small nail would be driven into the end of a small stick. Somewhat like in this picture.
A Carpathian woman is using a stylus that appears to be a straight needle to apply bees wax to an egg. Pysankas of the Ukrainian Carpathians by Solomchenko, 2002.
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