BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: Now, "writing" religious icons. In the Orthodox Christian tradition, icons are said to be written, not painted. The Orthodox consider making icons more a form of prayer than art, and they believe the iconographer's hand is guided by God. We visited an iconographer, Maria Leontovitsch Manley, in her Bethesda, Maryland studio to learn more about the process, which can take days, often weeks, for just one icon. She also showed us how she decorates eggs for Orthodox Easter celebrations.

MARIA LEONTOVITSCH MANLEY (Iconographer): Before I start work, I like to say a prayer. And I usually go into a room where I have an icon corner.

It's very important to be at peace with yourself and with the world around you. Writing an icon is a form of prayer. Each brushstroke is like a form of meditation. You have to have that inner peace. Otherwise, you can't do it.

The process of writing an icon starts with the wooden board -- the central area carved out, which is typical for Russian icons. And it's called an ark, like the Ark of the Covenant.

The image of Christ is put into an ark. That wood is covered with cheesecloth. A gesso is prepared, which is made of rabbit-skin glue and chalk and water. And this is brushed onto the cheesecloth.

I incised the drawing into the gesso with an etching tool.

Before the gold can be applied, the area to be gilded has to be burnished and sanded, burnished and sanded several times until a perfectly smooth finish is achieved. If there are any imperfections, they will show through the gold. The gold is so thin. I use 24-carat gold leaf, which comes in a book of 24 sheets.

I breathe on it. Some people say it's like breathing life into Adam. So we remember this when we breathe on the gold. After two layers of gold you can burnish it to a bright shine.