One of the things I found yesterday at the thrift store was an Arensbak Troll. I haven't researched these much, just priced them on EBAY. Mine isn't featured there, and I haven't taken a picture of him yet. These are trolls made out of natural forest material, plant fibers, acorns and other nuts, stones, twigs, etc. A section of a tree with bark still on often serves as the display platform, and some wooden beads and synthetic materials (I think the blue lacquer used to simulate water on mine has to be something synthetic) are usually used in moderation in the design.
These tend to have a real feel of a certain subset of the art popular with kids in the 1970s, that subset which had an ecological lean to it (ecology was like the big new science and of course hippies and children and many others embraced it). This was the time when Woodsy Owl made his appearance and seemed to suddenly be everywhere, and when everybody knew who Smokey the Bear was. So children were all starting to get the Green Revolution. I imagine Smokey's Q rating has suffered a decline since then.
I didn't date these yet but I'm guessing the seventies, although I might end up being surprised.
These trolls were created by Ken Arensbak in Cosby, Tennessee, and numbered and released in series (what I learned from EBAY). The larger ones (16 inches) tend to go for closer to thirty dollars and the smaller ones (mine is like 9 inches tall) range anywhere from five dollars to about twenty-two dollars on EBAY. I paid less than two dollars for mine and he is in immaculate condition and has the original tag. You can buy some very cute ones right now for under ten dollars on EBAY. Just search "Arensbak troll." It would be a delightfully ooky gift.
Here are two pictures of one currently for sale which I thought was photographed well.
The close up looks more like an art brut painting than a doll.
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