Sweden
in everyday life
Typically Swedish
Dalahäst
Carved from pine, dipped in Falu red – Sweden’s most beloved symbol.
A piece of forest, painted red
On my windowsill stands a little red horse, not even a hand’s width tall. It was one of the first things I brought home from Sweden – and for a long time I hardly knew what was behind it.
Now I do: this sturdy little horse with the swirling flowers on its back is Dalarna, carved in wood. A symbol born of long winter nights and skilled hands – and today it stands on windowsills in half of Sweden.
What makes the Dalahäst
Tap a tile or hover over it with your mouse.
The real thing from Nusnäs
The real Dalahästar come from Nusnäs on Lake Siljan. Two family workshops there have been carving and painting them by hand since the 1920s – you can watch them work and buy directly.
- Grannas A. Olsson. The oldest workshop still in operation, since 1922. grannas.com
- Nils Olsson. Founded in 1928 by the brothers Nils and Jannes. nilsolsson.se
- Go there. The two face each other on Edåkersvägen. View on Google Maps
A little horse as a guide
Because this horse stands for so much – for craftsmanship, for patience, for an entire country – it accompanies you throughout the page: up top in the stamp, between the paragraphs, and here once, in peace.
Sometimes I pick up the little horse and think of the workshop it comes from: the smell of freshly sawn pine and a painter who applies the flowers in a single stroke.
Maybe that’s why I love it so much. It isn’t a quick souvenir, but a piece of patience – something someone made by hand, unhurried, just as it has been done for a hundred years.
“A piece of pine, a few flowers –
and an entire country recognizes itself in it.”
Images: Pexels · my own photos · AI