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Ken Arensbak (1923 – 1997) was a Danish-born artist who, along with his wife Neta, is best known for making fanciful handcrafted figures of trolls in the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee, where they moved from Denmark in 1949. Arensbak made his first trolls in the 1960s, to give to his children and neighbors who liked the folk stories he had told them about trolls. Ken's first love was painting, though, and so that he might have more time to pursue his passion, his wife and children took up the job of making trolls to sell in the local shops. Now Arensbak trolls are sold to collectors all over the world in gift shops and online. 5 Arts Studio (so named for the five members of the Arensbak family at the time of the company's founding) is still located in Tennessee and family operated. The trolls are made from tree trunk bases that are covered in natural fiber with jute mustaches and eye brows. All are decorated with nuts and seeds, or small ornaments which denote their job or passion. According to the informational cards packaged with them, the "age" of an Arensbak troll is determined by multiplying its height—ranging in size from 4" to 52" tall—by ten; thus, a 12" troll is said to be 120 years old. Most trolls are created with a natural theme in mind, though there are many modern jobs that have been chosen for more specialized designs, such as the "soccer troll" or the "fire fighter troll". Most trolls come in either male or female models, standard or albino in color (excluding special editions).
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