Pysanky
Also called "Ukrainian Eggs", Mindy has been making Pysanky - a traditional art made in some of her ancestral homelands - since she was ten.
Pysanky are dyed with a wax-resist technique; the artist dyes the blown egg one color at a time, in progressively darker colors, preserving the bits she'd like to keep that color by covering lines, shapes, and sections of the egg's surface with melted beeswax before the next dye bath. The beeswax is applied with a tool called a kitska (plural: kitsky) - a small metal funnel affixed to a pencil-esque handle; the wax melts as the artist routinely returns the kitska to the flame of a candle throughout the decoration process.
The final design is revealed when the artist carefully warms the wax-covered egg in an oven, with a heat gun, or over an open flame, gently wiping the excess away to unveil the results.
The eggs are finished with several coats of polyurethane, applied by hand.
Knitting & Crochet
A sampling of finished and in-progress works; Mindy learned knitting and crochet from YouTube videos & under the generous tutelage of skilled friends.
Embroidery
Self-taught, Melinda embroiders with techniques learned from YouTube, blogs, and enough intuitive skill to replicate stitches she sees in other works.
Sewing
Taught by family members, books, YouTube videos, and good ol' trial-and-error; Mindy has been sewing for over two decades.
