Crafting the European Folk Art Horse
Tuesday, September 29th, 2020
While working on my quilt of ice age horse drawings, I discovered the marvelous ‘Kone’ of Miroslav Jaros on Pinterest. These carved and decorated horses reminded me of the simple horse carvings that my Slovenian grandfather made for me and my sister in the 1950’s. We loved playing with the wooden toys, wich needed all of our imagination to supply the details and the stories.
I feel very comfortable exploring some of the forms that Jaros uses. We have the same eastern European heritage, so any appropriation is personal, and not cultural. I have never seen his work in the round, or even learned the scale of it, and I never copy directly from his forms. There are many examples of Swedish folk art horses, as well, although they lack the more sculptural and monumental weight of the Kone. With my grandfather standing behind me, I have a great sense of joy exploring this form.
The horse figures in the photo have been roughed out on the bandsaw from 1.5″ thick stock. They are about 5″ tall. I used carving tools and abrasives to refine the forms after taking the photo. These are marvelous surfaces for ornament! There are an infinite ways to divide the surfaces for pyrography, paints, patination, and applied decorative elements, like upholstery nails. Although the shaping is somewhat tedious (more than woodturning; more like quilting!), the surface decoration makes it all worthwhile.
