From mother to daughter, the Luschas family’s history continues from the ancient practice of Margučiai.
Christine Luschas describes her mother, Elaine, as a math teacher with a flair for the arts. At their church, St. Columba, Elaine blended arts and math by teaching Pysanky, a Ukrainian style of egg painting.
Pysanky artists cover their eggs in hand-drawn geometric shapes, which are later covered in beeswax and layered in dye. The name derives from the Ukrainian word “pysaty” meaning “to write.”
But Elaine wanted to give her three daughters something closer to home – Margučiai. It’s a Lithuanian egg etching technique that relies on five tools: an egg, needle, pencil, dye and a pairing or pocket knife.
At her home Berwick, Elaine pulled out a book from the 1970s from her great aunt, who was a nun in the Lithuanian order.
“None of us could speak Lithuanian, so we just looked at pictures… and we tried scratching … and I was the worst at it,” Christine recollected as she plucked a needle off of her table. “I made an egg. I thought it was ugly, and so I said, ‘I'm not going to do this craft anymore. I quit.’ But I'm also very stubborn.”
Christine said that night she went downstairs and took a second crack at Margučiai. She held up the second egg she ever made, from around 25 years ago.
Eggs are surprisingly strong. They’re made of calcium, so they can withstand a decent amount of pressure when boiled or hollowed out. Christine’s first eggs, like the ones pictured to the right, were hard boiled to dehydrate the yolk.
“An egg is naturally porous because it's calcium based, and the air can escape slowly outside of the shell … Sometimes, they can crack if the gasses are escaping too fast, so we don't hard boil our eggs anymore,” said Christine.
Now, she blows out the yolk with an egg blower. It’s a small pump with a needle at the end of it. Christine pokes two holes into the egg, one on top and bottom, before drilling with a small hand drill. Then, she pumps the yolk out with the blower and washes any remaining yolk with a dash of water.
The whole process for a single egg takes less than two minutes, so she’ll prepare upwards of 60 eggs in one sitting, depending on what projects and recipes she has planned.
“I make a lot of scrambled eggs,” said Christine regarding the leftover yolk. “I make a lot of quiche and cake. I pick all my recipes based on how many eggs the recipe takes. So, I have a great pound cake recipe that takes seven eggs.”
She stores hollowed eggs in her basement to let them dry before dyeing them in an array of bright colors – reds, greens, purples – after cleaning any imperfections on the surface of the egg with vinegar and baking soda.
Christine started selling her artwork in her early teens.
“And when people started giving me money for the eggs, it was great. I went crazy at that point …I started selling them on eBay in college, I made an Etsy store when I was in law school … So, it just kept getting bigger. Because one, I love doing it. And two, I was part of a group that was dealing with the history of a craft that no one was doing anymore,” said Christine.
The history of a special egg
Margučiai is a largely lost practice. Christine’s work has been featured in art magazines, museums and on the Martha Stewart Show in 2012 to document ancient Lithuanian culture.
But the humble art style has had a major impact on one of Christianity’s biggest holidays: Easter.
Before getting in kahoots with the Easter Bunny, decorated eggs started as a type of pagan blessing ritual, explained Christine. People would etch or paint designs onto their eggs and then they would bury them.
“They'd either bury it in front of their field, in front of their home, in front of their chicken coop, and they believed it would bring prosperity … It was a type of … spell or a prayer … Lithuania was the last country to convert from paganism to Christianity, and when [it] did, the egg turned into religious symbolism for new birth, the birth of [Jesus] Christ,” said Christine.
Christine carries this history into her pieces. While some of her work depicts flowers and natural landscapes, others embody Lithuanian and Pennsylvania Dutch tradition. She held out an egg with artwork resembling a Juosta sash, a type of Lithuanian tapestry.
She’s also created work resembling Pennsylvania Dutch scherenschnitte and the twelve days of Christmas. One of her eggs has different Easter-associated details, from a cross to the Three Wise Men following the Star of Bethlehem.
Tradition as storytelling
For Elaine, these traditions bring her closer to her Lithuanian roots. While she grew up in the Coal Region in Schuylkill County’s Mahanoy City, her mother carried the traditions from her mother, who was born in Lithuania.
“It is just natural that when I got married and had children, I started to [teach my kids about it] … My father showed me how to do the drop and pull method [of egg painting,]” said Elaine.
Unlike Christine’s work, which requires slow sketches, the drop and pull method uses fast-moving wax to paint on top of the egg.
Elaine said she taught her children Margučiai so they would be able to share their family’s stories.
“It's important to have traditions. They're rich,” said Elaine.
She described a game where family members pit their Margučiai eggs against each other after Easter dinner by hitting them against the other player’s egg to see which one can last the longest without breaking.
“Her brother filled an egg with lead so he would automatically win the game. No one knew that he had done it. He cheated,” chimed in Christine.
Elaine explained that her brother melted a thin wire rod into the egg so it would be heavier than everyone else’s. It was an effective secret weapon.
“I’ll never forget that,” she said.
Stories from decades ago flowed through conversation. Elaine shared memories of how small children used to roll decorated eggs down ramps set up outside to see whose egg would travel the farthest.
Above all else, Christine said she’s an artist because it gives her joy.
“That is my biggest reason … But coupled with that, it does two other things. It is a look at the past … It gives you the ability to remember … when you're doing this craft, or when you're doing anything that's a tradition … it's going to jump start memories and it's going to jump start stories,” said Christine.
Elaine’s brother passed away a few years ago, Christine said.
But she emphasizes art keeps the memory of those who have passed alive.
“You're able to share those stories with people who have never met that person, and you're able to then make new memories and have that fun all over again,” said Christine.
She also offers key advice to those looking to grab some dye and a small knife – don’t worry about cracking the egg or making mistakes. A hollowed egg is just “a piece of garbage.”
“You just have to be willing to start over. I say that with such confidence, and I'm very cavalier about it … but when I break them, I get angry too because of the time that you put in is an annoyance,” Christine said while etching a row of leaves onto a purple egg.
It’s okay to take a moment if you get frustrated and leave the room before taking another crack at it. She said she does it all the time.
“In the end, [I remind myself] it's okay because I could always remake it … The value of the craft is in your time. The value of this craft is not in the tools. It's not in the item itself. It's in your time. And that is it. That is a blessing and a curse all at the same time. It's a blessing because anyone can get into it, and anyone can afford this craft. It's a curse in that if it breaks after you put in a lot of time, you are pretty upset over breaking an eggshell,” said Christine.
Read more about Christine Luschas' art at her website, Art by the Dozen.
How to make your own Margučiai eggs according to Christine Luschas
Egg Preparation Tools
-Eggs (White works best, but any color will do. Different colored eggs will affect the color of the final product).
-Straight pin
-Round file
-Egg blower (Blowing by mouth works too)
-Egg dye
-Vinegar (to add to the dye and help clean the egg)
-Tongs
-Rubber band
Egg Preparation Steps
- Prepare the dye according to the packet’s instructions
- Hollow the egg: prick a hole in the top and bottom of the egg and use a file to enlarge each hole. Remove the egg’s contents with an egg blower.
- Wash and dry the egg: rinse the inside of the egg with warm water and allow it to dry.
- Dye the egg: Use tongs with a rubber band wrapped around them to help keep the egg submerged in water as long as needed for the desired color.
- Dry the dyed egg: Remove egg from dye bath and set egg to dry with one hole on the bottom to let it dry both on the outside and inside.
- Repeat process: Several eggs can be dyed with a single packet, however, the dye will lose its potency over time.
Tools for Egg Etching
-Dyed hollow egg
-Pencil
-Box cutter
-Eraser
-Towel
It’s Etching Time
- Prepare workspace: Set down small towels as the workspace. The surface helps prevent the egg from cracking during etching.
- Sketch design: Use pencil to draw a design on the egg.
- Position box cutter: There are many ways to hold the box cutter, but Christine recommends holding it like a pencil, which allows for clean lines.
- Begin scratching: Start etching design on the egg, but try to not dig into the shell. Vary pressure on the egg to make thin or thicker lines and to add shading. Christine adds lighter strokes “produce a shading effect, [which is] wonderful for petals.”
- Remove pencil marks with eraser: Try to not press too hard, which might remove some dye from the egg.
