Mouse Band
€28In stock
Kauppakatu 18, Jyväskylä
Two benches, four people, one lathe that is older than all of us
We are not a factory with a story about craft. We are four people in a 90 m² room above a bicycle shop, and if you come on a Thursday you will probably be handed something to sand.
Shop all twelve toys
Who does what
Four names, and you can email any of them
- Saara HietalaDraws every new shape, usually three times. Decides when a toy is retired.
- Mikko RantalaSaw, lathe and router. Has turned the Pull-Along Hound about four thousand times.
- Roosa NiemiSanding, oiling and the stock rack. Answers most of the email.
- Elias KoskinenCrates, gift notes, the post run at four, and the seconds table.
Nobody here is a brand manager. If you ask a question about grain direction you will get an answer from the person holding the chisel.
How a toy gets from a sketch to a crate
Usually eleven weeks, of which nine are arguing about the shape.
- 1
Drawn, then drawn again
Saara works in pencil at 1:1 so the size is honest from the first line. Anything that cannot be cut from a 60 mm board without waste goes back.
- 2
Turned and dropped
Mikko cuts a first article and drops it onto concrete from bench height twenty times. If a joint opens or an edge chips, the shape changes rather than the warning label.
- 3
Sanded to 400, oiled twice
Three grits by machine, the last by hand. Linseed and beeswax, a coat on Monday and a coat on Wednesday, because one coat looks fine and feels wrong.
- 4
Crated, named, posted
Elias packs it in the crate it will live in, adds the finish tin, the sanding pad and a card with the maker's name on it, and it is on the four o'clock post.
Three that came off this bench last week
Carved Pony & Story Stones
€64Sold out — back 14 March
Pull-Along Peg Cart
€22In stock
See all twelve on the shelf
What comes back in the post
“The pony arrived with a card saying who carved it. My daughter wrote back to her. Saara replied. That is not a marketing tactic, that is just a small shop.”
“A block split along the grain after two winters near a radiator. I sent a photo on a Tuesday and a replacement was in the box on the Friday, with no argument and no invoice.”
“We run a group of eighteen two-year-olds. The train set has been dropped, stood on and chewed for three years and still couples cleanly. Nothing else in the room has lasted a year.”
Come and see it, or just order one
The bench shop is open Thursday to Saturday, 10 to 17, at Kauppakatu 18. Every first Saturday there is a seconds table — toys that failed a finish check but not a strength check, about a third off.