The post you have been waiting for....

At last, how the famous Swedish "Dala horse" comes to life in Dalarna!
Each town in the province of Dalarna has its own style of wooden horse, but the most well known is this red one that became famous during the World Fair 1939 in New York. We visited three different workshops where these horses are mass produced for tourists in Sweden and for export around the world.
Just follow me and I'll take you on a simple tour to show you how to make these bright and beautiful horses.
1- The wood working room....
Wouldn't my husband love to have this workshop!!?? (looks a bit like our big garage!)
2- After band sawing into chunky horses (which you can purchased to whittle yourself), these horses are whittled into a finer shape individually with a knife.
3- The wooden horses are lined up neatly after their final sanding...ready to get painted red!
4- The RED ROOM...the horses are painted in large groups by being plunged into an enormous vat of red oil paint. Geez..what a mess!
5- All lined up by size, the horsies will dry for several days or so while they are waiting to be painted individually by a patient artist.

6- Here are some samples of variations in the design at this particular factory.

7 - Careful hands, work with precision to make each horse look exactly like its friends in the showroom. The artist paints in a particular order so that the colors do not blend, she allows a little drying time between each layer. On this day she was painting that pile of little tiny ones on the left side of the photo! Can you imagine doing the same design over and over like that?! (boring!)
This was a ladies outing to visit the Dalahorse factories and any Loppis that popped up along the way! Barbro and Polly were so tolerant of my Dalahorse enthusiasm that day! (July 28...Fiestas Patrias en el Perú!) We only went to the factories in Nusnäs...there are a few others but three were definitely enough for me! Thanks Mom and Barbro for going with me!