#05. Sorbian Egg Workshop - Mark Humphreys - Tuesday July 21st - 3:30pm to 5:30pm

Workshop Summary:

More than a Sorbian egg workshop! It’s a cultural, educational, and hands-on experience! If you want to become involved with one of the rarest forms of Slavic ‘pysankarstvo,’ receive an introduction to Sorbian culture, learn the secrets of composing symmetric design with basic geometric elements instead of lines, then this is the course for you!

This is YOUR experience and seminar! Weeks before the workshop, you will receive first cultural information regarding the Sorbs/Wends, so you will actually understand the roots of the small Slavic group that propagates this art form, as well as this unique style itself. Then, you will receive instructions regarding the materials needed for the workshop, as well as a PowerPoint presentation explaining both the symbolism and process of the egg work. With this knowledge, we will all be able to hit the ground running and actually fully complete a model Sorbian egg!

This is YOUR workshop, for both beginners and experienced folk. Before the seminar, be sure to contact me with any questions you personally have, and I can answer them either right away or during the seminar. 

This process involves “pull-drop” application, as well as using cut feathers. Never touched the drop-pull process? No problem at all. I can teach that to you before the workshop! This method was used last year and was a proven success. I will provide several cut feathers, an egg, and a pin for drop-pull. Besides a “scrap egg” and pencil, the main thing you should bring is a small wax-melter, such as the one provided by Kathy’s “Eggcessories.”  Of course, you already have your interest and determination, which is most important. 

I will be a dependable guide. I learned this art while staying in Berlin and in the Sorbian region around Dresden in 1997 and am perhaps the only “foreigner” (non-Sorb/German) to have won high prizes at the Sorbian national egg contest in Bautzen, Germany (1999, 2000). After my achievement, I think they banned foreigners from getting anything more than an honorable mention, at best.  I hope you will take advantage of this experience, because it might be my last workshop for quite a while.

Workshop includes a small raffle for a Sorbian egg and some extra feathers, and perhalps something extra, so there will be multiple winners!

What's Provided:

• a straight pin stuck in wood
• one blown chicken egg
• several goose feathers shaped liked a triangle and diamond, and one for you to take home and cut yourself
• one blown egg. 

Access to dyes and tissues also provided.

What to Bring: 

• a small wax melter as shown in the photo below and is even available at Eggcessories
• beeswax to melt (At least a small average wax block will be melted, but the more the merrier- one or two standard cubes.)
• one or two eggs (chicken or duck) of your own, with one being used as a “practice egg,”
• a pencil
• small plastic template to make circles, if desired.

Maximum Number of Students: 30

Workshop Fee: $40 CAD per student
Please bring $40 CAD in cash, placed in an envelope with your name and the instructor’s name written on it, to the start of class. 

Join us in this unique opportunity to learn about and create your own Sorbian Easter Eggs, a lesser-known but equally fascinating tradition in the world of egg decorating.

About Mark:

I first learned this tradition when I was much younger and traveled to Eastern Germany in the 1990's after having spent numerous weeks with egg writers in Bucovina, Romania. I spent several weeks with a Sorbian family in Berlin and traveled to Cottbus and villages near Dresden to have some lessons from some established artists. I think I am actually the only non-Sorb, or one of the very few to have been among  top prize winners in the well-known Sorbian Egg Contest of Bautzen, "Wettbewerb um das schoenste sorbische Osterei."