Tradition,pasion,a way of life

Easter painted eggs

Local artists

Torac Elena

Leuciuc Oresia

Popescu Liliana

To obtain more information and pictures about painted eggs we went to Brodina, a famous village for its great number of women that pain eggs.

                 When I got to Brodina I asked for someone that paints eggs, and everybody answered “Torac Elena”.

                 Torac Elena is a 32 years old woman which made a hobby of “writing” eggs, but she also does it for money, because her only occupation is painting eggs.

                 When I entered her house, everything was prepared. Even her children were “writing” something easy on the eggs. I asked her if she bodered painting for me but I found out she paints eggs all year long.

                 At first she sat at her work table and she started to show me the process of egg painting and she told me about all the contests and exhibitions she had participated at. She proved that to me showing all the trophys and diplomas she had.

                 I that house I saw something extraordinary: about 1000 painted duck eggs and a few ostrich eggs. She told me that she paints eggs for pleasure but lately painted eggs has become a lot more commercial. Even so, it can’t be done without talent.

                 She doesn’t “write” these eggs just for the sake of it. For example, mrs. Elena has to paint 100 eggs ‘till Easter for a Swiss..

                 She also told me these painted eggs have suffered a great deal of change across time, changes in the motif structure and even the way they are made. “Very popular”, she said, are eggs painted “on wax”.

                 Mrs. Torac didn’t seem excited or disturbed in front of the photo camera. When I asked her why she answered she’s used to this kind of things. She also told me about other women that paint eggs, just like her.

                 After searching for a while I arrived at mrs. Popescu Liliana’s house. She was painting eggs in the first stage, that is with black wax on white eggs. When I asked her why so, she answered she does the hard part and her daughters are colouring the eggs afterwords.Mrs. Liliana was more excited, but curious, at the same time. Because I needed these information she thought I was sabotaging her. Both the eggs painters were very kind but they told me not to tell the other egg painters her models, because they are rivals.

                 In Brodina there is another woman that paints eggs, Juravle Viorica. She is older that the other two. She was also very kind with me, and when she heard that the pictures of her and her painted eggs were top be seen by the whole world, she was very excited.