Dala horse collection

Today I'm starting a week of Dala horse related posts, by showing off my Dala horse collection. Dala horses, or Dalecarnian horses, are traditional Swedish carved painted wooden horses. It's quite appropriate, because this year is the Year of the Horse!

I didn't really intend to start a Dala horse collection... it just sort of happened!

My first two Dala horses were quite traditional in colour and size, and they were both found second-hand. The first of these was the tiny teal one, which I found at the Christian Aid Book Sale in Edinburgh in 2010, then I found the black one the very next month in a charity shop in Hemel Hempstead.

The black bronze horse in the middle isn't a Dala horse, it's a vintage bronze horse by Walter Bosse. But I think it fits in quite well with the Dala horse family!

Recently I've had some success at finding some much bigger Dala horses, most of which are Ikea ones. The white and plain wooden horses were found at Ikea, but with no price on them, and when I took them to the bargain corner to get them priced I got really good deals on them!

The horse in between these two is a papier mache horse that I found in a craft store. I haven't decided what I'm going to do with him!

And the black Ikea horse with his woolly coat was found in one of my favourite local charity shops! It is the same size as the white and pine ones.

Come back for the next couple of days and you'll see what I've done to enhance the plain pine Dala horse!