The authentic wooden Dala horses are produced only in one place in the world and it is in the village of Nusnäs, in the middle of Dalarna, the heart of Sweden.
The traditional patterns are painted free-hand by skilled "ripples painters". A difficult art that takes a long time to master.
Finally painted the colourful horses leave Nusnäs and walk out into the world as a symbol of Sweden.
It was in the year of 1928 and the Olsson brothers, Nils and Jannes, started to carve figures of horses. Nils was 15 years old and Jannes was 13. They sat in their families baking shed and carved and painted, mixing the paints themselves and making paintbrushes from squirrel hair. The years have passed and the horse has become a symbol of Mora, Dalecarlia, and Sweden.
In Nusnäs, the home of the Dala horse, the traditional handicraft is still carried on by new generations of the Nils and Jannes families.
