Photo: Luka Stanzl/PIXSELL

The Mikuš family has been involved in making traditional wooden toys for six decades and have been recognised as producers of traditional toys from Hrvatsko Zagorje all around Croatia. The production method has been passed on from generation to generation, but it’s still alive to this very day thanks to different exhibitions and presentations in libraries and kindergartens organised by Pavica Mlinarić.

Photo: Luka Stanzl/PIXSELL

Pavica nostalgically recalls the exhibition at the Ethnographic Museum in 2012 when visitors had the opportunity to purchase their toys. The same year at the 54th International Fair of Crafts they won the first prize “Vrijedne ruke” awarded by the Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Crafts for the best traditional product with their toy “Dora” which consists of a cabinet, cupboard, table, chair and cradle. Back in 2012 they held an exhibition at the Gornje Vrapče library in cooperation with the Ethnographic Museum in Zagreb and photos of the master wooden toy workshop from the village of Vidovec.

Photo: Luka Stanzl/PIXSELL

The art of making traditional wooden toys from Hrvatsko Zagorje has been included in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List, while craft Mikuš presses on with tradition.

Photo: Luka Stanzl/PIXSELL

“As agreed with kindergartens, we visit children’s groups in order to familiarise them with how wooden toys are made”, Pavica Mlinarić, who’s in charge of making the toys, tells us. While recounting the reactions, she points out that “our toys take the older generation back to their childhood days, while the younger ones are blown away by the fact that they get to keep the wooden toy after they’re done decorating it and they’re particularly fond of ponies, butterflies, ride-on toys and wooden flutes”. They mostly sell their toys at fairs across Croatia so you can buy them there or you can contact them directly through Zagreb Crafts.

Photo: Luka Stanzl/PIXSELL