When Viera Neumanová (1904) from Streženice near Púchov temporarily moved with her family to Uherské Hradiště in Moravia for work, she encountered here in a natural environment with the still living tradition of decorating eggs with straw. This technique spread to the Slovak-Moravian border at the end of the 19th century through towns and monasteries. And since Viera Neumanová always leaned towards artistic expression, but dedicated her life to caring for her family, the opportunity to express herself through this meticulous traditional production deeply resonated with her and she decided to give it a try. With a patient approach, she soon mastered the decoration of straw eggs in full breadth and found suitable outlets for her products through the ÚĽUV in Uherské Hradiště.
Like every creator of straw-covered eggs, Viera Neumanová used primarily small scissors, pins, glue, and barley and oat straw. She used straw that had aged for at least half a year, softened in water two hours before starting work. She cleaned and wiped the stalk of straw longitudinally with a knife from the inside, or, if the straw was dry, she moistened it with a cloth to make it more even and softer when cutting. From the prepared material, she cut out squares, triangles, strips, leaflets, and sorted them by the natural shade of straw (golden, greenish, yellow, reddish).
She called the decoration of eggs “dressing up the Easter eggs” herself. She glued straw onto colored eggs, toning light shells in red and green and darker ones in purple, blue, brown, or even black. She dipped tiny pieces of straw picked up with a pin in glue and then arranged them on the shell in various ornamental motifs of geometric, plant, and figurative character (daisies, sunflowers, leaflets, stars, circles, strips, doves, etc.) and compositions. The natural shade of straw on the colored background stood out, and her Easter eggs, in addition to their imaginative ornamental decoration, were also distinguished by an exceptionally tasteful coordination of the straw itself.
Out of her work emerges to this day exceptional skill and sensibility, which she had for the material, which is another characteristic of her artistic nature. She lived away from the hurried world, surrounded by nature that was her great source of inspiration. According to witnesses, she was characterized by a warm relationship with all things positive, with traditional folk culture and its artistic and spiritual values. Alongside motifs from traditional Easter egg art that she adopted, her miniature works also revealed an interest in contemporary social events, as she creatively portrayed current social themes on the Easter eggs, for example, the Year of the Child or International Women’s Day.
Her Easter eggs were repeatedly awarded at Beauty of Life exhibitions and represented our folk art abroad, where they always stood out as artistically valuable exhibits. Not in vain was she honored for her outstanding work with the prestigious title of a master of folk art production.
(Source: Prandová, E.: Easter egg creation by Viera Neumanová. In: Ethnographic News 3/1990)