The native of Dubová in the Brezno district spent a large part of her life in Hungary. She returned to Slovakia in 2011, to Horehronie in Hornej Lehoty. She undertook various manual works during her maternity leave in order to enrich her free time with creativity. She embroidered, crocheted, knitted, painted, and also dedicated herself to art protis, clay, and gingerbread.

She tried decorating eggs already in childhood. She colored them with onion peel brew, dried blueberries, or basil fruits, and scratched decorations onto them with a needle, stones, or anything sharp. On Easter Monday, she would then gift them to young men who went caroling. Surely, memories of beautiful moments associated with spring were behind her decision to dedicate herself to egg carving even in adulthood.

She lived in a village in Hungary where large craft markets were held annually. Fate brought her together with a lady who decorated eggs and gingerbread. They became friends and eventually agreed that she would learn her art from her. In Hungary, she was not employed, she was a homemaker, so in the mid-80s, she had a relatively large space for learning alongside one child. She became active in decorating eggs since 1987.

Initially, alongside egg decorating, she also made gingerbread, which sold well. However, she didn’t particularly enjoy baking, so over time she narrowed her focus only to eggs. Besides their aesthetic beauty, she was especially drawn to their symbolism – spring, new life, and the resurrection of Christ.

She learned the technique of egg carving from her teacher, but she arrived at the shading style of decoration, which is characteristic of her eggs, through her own clumsiness, as she herself says: “I took egg decoration so seriously at first that my hand was shaking when holding the egg, and over time I derived my own style from that.”

Ornaments – flowers, leaves, spirals, grids, and other botanical, zoomorphic, and geometric motifs – are placed on the egg from memory, without pre-drawing. She first creates a basic line in the middle of the egg – either vertically or horizontally – and then adds ornaments that emerge from it in the creation process. Each egg that comes from her hands is original, and she is most pleased when she manages to invent a new ornament or create aesthetically perfect egg.

She dyes eggs in advance during the summer months and decorates them in winter. For carving, she uses sharp knives with short tips or a razor blade, sometimes assisted by an electric drill. As she says, the most important thing in egg carving is proper preparation, cleaning, and dyeing of the egg. The decoration itself is just the cherry on top. To ensure the blown-out egg is perfectly colored and doesn’t have any blotches, the shell must be well degreased. She uses powdered fabric dyes for coloring, mixing her own shades. She adds vinegar to the dye for saturation.

Olga Lórántová is pleased when people admire her art, and she speaks proudly of her work, which brings her a great sense of satisfaction. “What keeps me with the eggs?” she asks. “Probably that I am happy when creating them. Although talking about this feeling at my age is perhaps bold, I am happy when creating eggs.”.