The Audubon Community Nature Center’s Pysanky Egg Decorating class is being offered twice on Saturdays, March 2 and March 23.

Janelle Turk, a Warren artist and teacher, first learned to write pysanky as a teenager when her neighbors introduced her to the tradition at Easter.

Turk will share her years of experience with the beautiful Ukrainian and Polish egg decorating technique at two separate Pysanky Egg Decorating classes at the Audubon Community Nature Center. The first is Saturday, March 2, from 1 to 4 p.m. A second class will be Saturday, March 23, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

In each of the three-hour workshops, participants will learn the history and tradition of creating pysanky by writing with melted beeswax upon the surface of an eggshell using a tool called a kistka. Eggs are then submerged in a variety of different colored dye baths, writing with the kistka at each color stage until the final motif is achieved. Simple division motifs will be explored, along with learning to write the traditional symbols that are found on pysanky. Students will practice mastery of the tools on paper first and will follow the instructor’s step-by-step to create their first pysanka. Students will then create a second egg of their own design with assistance.

Turk has a masters degree in art from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s degree in painting from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. As an exchange student, she studied at the University of Ljubljana’s Academy of Fine Arts, in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The Pennsylvania state-certified art educator has taught middle school and high school art courses since 2008 and pursues a variety of creative interests.

Enrollment is limited. Tuition for each workshop is $24 or $18 for Nature Center members, with a $25 required materials fee.

Deadline for registering for the March 2 workshop is Friday, Feb. 22. Registration deadline for the March 23 workshop is Saturday, March 16. From a cell phone, click on Plan Your Visit, then Attend a Program, followed Programs and Workshops/Current Schedule. The Audubon Community Nature Center is located at 1600 Riverside Road, one-quarter mile east of Route 62 between Jamestown and Warren.