„Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” as the saying goes. Quite right - I certainly wouldn’t recommend doing that with these eggs, - to be more precise, Ukrainian Easter eggs. “Ukrainian?” you ask. Indeed, that is what they are called, just as you would say “Frankfurter sausages or Camembert cheese”. Ukrainian Easter eggs (or “pysanky” as they are commonly and internationally called) have been around since pre- Christian times as a springtime tradition, the egg symbolising resurrection and birth in the Christian tradition, and more recently - due to the Russian-Ukrainian war - peace. Regular international and local events such as Easter egg festivals and exhibitions offer the chance to exchange ideas and make new contacts. But why should these eggs not be put in one basket? Well, because each and every one of them is a work of art, with delicately crafted, intricate patterns or motifs, beautifully balanced colours, a pleasure to the eye and soul. The fascination and enthusiasm Thi Finkemeyer has in creating these “works of art” become quite apparent when she talks about her hobby. She describes the process as absorbing, indeed “meditative”.
Thi Finkemeyer (her maiden name is Zawtun) is Burmese by birth, cosmopolitan by conviction. Her life has been an unexpected, remarkable odyssey that finally brought her to Germany. Thi’s British, post-colonial school education was interrupted when her mother, a medical doctor, and father, an academic, decided to emigrate from Burma in the late 1960’s.
Their jobs took the family (Thi has 5 siblings) via Ethiopia and Tanzania (where she met her future German husband who was working there as a Peace Corps Volunteer) to Canada. Thi’s father took a post at the University of Edmonton, Alberta and Thi herself did a degree course in Biology at the University of Halifax, Nova Scotia. She took her newly-developed active interest in “pysanky” with her from Canada to Oldenburg in Germany, where she has settled and brought up her 3 children, taking intermittent teaching jobs. The latter brought Thi into contact with Delta Kappa Gamma, of which she has been a long-time active member, with her international contacts being of benefit to all.
Thi’s enthusiasm for designing Ukrainian eggs has remained with her throughout. Her hobby desk is simple. It consists of a variety of dyes for dipping the egg in to create successive layer of colours according to the motif, a saucer with a knob of beeswax together with a candle for heating, and a stylus (or “kitska” to the more initiated) which has a tiny point fed by melted bees wax from an attached tiny receptacle for creating the pattern or motif contours on the egg.
If this has caught your interest and imagination, you might want to follow Thi’s eggs-ample. Learning by doing. Further help is out there on the Internet and social media. So, Happy Easter Eggs!
Thi Finkemeyer (her maiden name is Zawtun) is Burmese by birth, cosmopolitan by conviction. Her life has been an unexpected, remarkable odyssey that finally brought her to Germany. Thi’s British, post-colonial school education was interrupted when her mother, a medical doctor, and father, an academic, decided to emigrate from Burma in the late 1960’s.
Their jobs took the family (Thi has 5 siblings) via Ethiopia and Tanzania (where she met her future German husband who was working there as a Peace Corps Volunteer) to Canada. Thi’s father took a post at the University of Edmonton, Alberta and Thi herself did a degree course in Biology at the University of Halifax, Nova Scotia. She took her newly-developed active interest in “pysanky” with her from Canada to Oldenburg in Germany, where she has settled and brought up her 3 children, taking intermittent teaching jobs. The latter brought Thi into contact with Delta Kappa Gamma, of which she has been a long-time active member, with her international contacts being of benefit to all.
Thi’s enthusiasm for designing Ukrainian eggs has remained with her throughout. Her hobby desk is simple. It consists of a variety of dyes for dipping the egg in to create successive layer of colours according to the motif, a saucer with a knob of beeswax together with a candle for heating, and a stylus (or “kitska” to the more initiated) which has a tiny point fed by melted bees wax from an attached tiny receptacle for creating the pattern or motif contours on the egg.
If this has caught your interest and imagination, you might want to follow Thi’s eggs-ample. Learning by doing. Further help is out there on the Internet and social media. So, Happy Easter Eggs!
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