tude of volunteers transformed intact eggs into ma- Shown clockwise from top left: Wirhun’s heavily lac- cabre skulls, which were then piled in the cemetery quered demons glower, a pile of “Skullys” evokes the _{yard of St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery in New York.} mass graves of Iraq, and, almost sculptural, this deeply _{shaded visage inspires calm.}

“The interesting irony was that I took the symbol of
life and fused it with the symbol of death. The paradox
created a certain kind of emotional tension that made shell in a vinegar bath, and the deeper you go into
The Skull Project a potent piece of public art,” he says. an emu shell, the lighter the tone gets,” he says.
Wirhun hopes to resurrect The Skull Project on a On the other end of the design spectrum you’ll
national scale next fall. even find erotic pysanky. Inspired by classic Greek
pottery, Wirhun creates striking scenes of male
Buddhas, Demons, and Saints potency by reversing the traditional dyeing process:
Further breaking with tradition, the rest of Wirhun’s “You’re supposed to go from lightest to darkest
work is much less ephemeral. Because some of his color in the traditional dyeing pattern, and with this,
pieces fetch as much as $1,000 each, his clients I was kind of mixing it up. The erotica that I’ve done
expect them to last. As such, Wirhun uses blown- is all batiking, but it’s batiking of a different type.”
out eggs and finishes them with several coats of Lately compelled by Tibetan influences, Wirhun’s
lacquer. From bold, batiked depictions of Mary, the been experimenting with yet another design style.
Buddha, and assorted saints to his scratched and “I’m doing new skulls that have these crazy eyes that
gilded “shooting cock” talismans, his methods and go in different directions. They kind of look like they’re
subject matter range widely. laughing, and they also have these arched eyebrows,
To make such variety possible, Wirhun uses so they look clownish, and they are very expressive.”
eggs from chickens, ducks, geese, emu, rhea, and Wirhun is gushing now, happy to carry an ancient
ostriches. “Every different type of egg has a differ- tradition into modernity. And, he admits, it’s a good
ent texture, and, even within the same type of egg, thing, too: “Isn’t this brilliant? Here we are, spread-
no two eggs are alike,” he notes. In the case of an ing this information so that the world is saved!” ×
ornately etched image of the crucifixion of Christ —
a delicate design in pale greens and gold — Wirhun’s » Try creating your own pysanky by following the DIY
hands never touch dye. “That is an emu shell. All article on page 103.
the colors that you see, aside from the gold that
Susan M. Brackney is an avid crafter and the author of The Lost
^{I applied to it afterward, are the tones of the shell} Soul Companion as well as the sequel, The Not-So-Lost Soul
itself. I created the image through wax-etching the Companion ( lostsoulcompanion.com).