Toys Made With Love

The other day I decided to box up my carvings of "Little guys" which had been decorating nearly every horizontal surface in the house. When I looked at the figures lying in that box, it struck me how that box would look to a little kid: It's a box of toys! One of the greatest joys I've had since I started carving the miniature figures has been watching my youngest grandson play with them. That was the original idea behind the carvings of horses, goats and people that Scandinavian loggers carved during their months at the logging camps.

One of the most famous Norwegian figure carvers was Axel Petersson, known also as "Doderhultarn" after his hometown. His figures today sell for well over $1,000. Yet a photo from 1913 shows two young boys playing with wooden figures of horses and people, and at least one of the figures has been identified as a Petersson piece!

When my oldest grandson, now 27, saw my "Frogman" carving, he immediately asked, "Where's Toad?" He remembered fondly the Frog and Toad books of his childhood. So my next project is Toad!

Wouldn't it be nice if we could get back to the days before manufactured "action figures," when fathers and mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers made toys for the little ones -- toys that sparked their imagination, toys made with love!