Hobby Horse Toys

Dan also has a creative side in the kitchen. What would you do if your daughter requested ‘a sleeping dragon birthday cake’! While I wondered where on earth we would find such a thing, Dan just went ahead and came up with this brilliant icing creation. Needless to say there was on majorly chuffed 5 year old little girl on her birthday!

Dan hand paints each and every horse with beautiful scrollwork. Here he adds the finishing touches to his hobby horses ready for the Christmas fairs.

It can chilly in his workshop, hence the outdoor clothing! If this were a podcast, you’d be able to hear him singing along to his MP3 player!!

Thanks are due to Keith of Pureplay for reviewing this new blog. Its nice to be noticed, even nicer to be complimented, and wonderful to read he has categorised the review under the heading of ‘entrepreneur’!!!

This Monday 18th December the Irish Independent, a national Irish newspaper, featured Hobby Horse Toys in an article about quality Irish made gifts to buy for your loved ones this Christmas. A copy of the article will appear here on this blog as soon as my scanner decides to co-operate!

Dan has finished the last of the craft fairs before Christmas. Some of you have been in touch about these cars, having seen the photo of their finishing touches in a previous post. These are the remaining cars that came home from the fair, since then the red and the dark blue cars have been sold, but the rest are still available.

One of the things you can’t tell from a photo is that the wooden toys smell lovely. By using eco-friendly paints and varnishes the resulting aroma is reminiscent of essential oils.

€20 plus a little postage. If you are interested contact Dan dan[at]hobbyhorsetoys.com

One of the things that sets Dans handcrafted toys apart from the mass produced factory toy is his talent for design. He has been working on a range of new pull along toys and I took a sneeky shot of this beautiful horse from his sketch book. He will work for hours studying live horses in the fields, taking photos of them to work from and downloading images from the internet. Once he has digested the images of a horses ‘form’ he then sits down with his sketch book and begins to draw. When he is happy with the shapes on paper he then begins to cut out the prototype design in wood, sometimes returning to paper and pen to make any changes necessary until he is happy.

Once the shapes are cut they are sanded by hand, then painted, decorated and varnished. The wheels are also added and a ribbon for the pull along toys.

Some of these pull along horses are finished and I hope to post a photo of them in the next few days. They aren’t yet on his website, but if you are interested to purchasing one please email Dan directly on dan@hobbyhorsetoys.com To peruse his other work visit his website at http://www.hobbyhorsetoys.com

Heres a photo of our kitchen table! The cars come in from the workshop to the comfort of a warm home for their finishing touches. Each one is hand painted and varnished, some even have a surfboard attached to the roofwrack (Dan is a surfer!). He uses a range of paints, all of them are child friendly and non-toxic, some are even organic. Dan has just been on a course at the Organic Centre in Rossinver, Co Leitrim, where he learned to make his own organic paints. On his return he was enthusiastic to say the least … there are not only plans afoot to make his own paint for his wooden toys … but also for our entire house!

Most of the cars in this photo were sold at the RDS Craft Show last week, in Dublin. There are only 4 left, so if you would like to snap one up, drop Dan an email at dan[at]hobbyhorsetoys.com or visit his website at http://www.hobbyhorsetoys.com

I am a fly on the wall in the workshop of Dan Hillman, the creator of Hobby Horse Toys. I’ll be bringing you images of his work in progress and regular snippets from around Dans homestead in rural Ireland. If (or more likely ‘when’) you fall in love with Dans creations, you can visit his website at http://www.hobbyhorsetoys.com to place an order, or email him on dan[at]hobbyhorsetoys.com He is always more than delighted to deal direct with his customers, and also thrives on custom made requests.