Oľga Bodorová, Jana Menkynová
Rudolf Stehlík (1940) was born in Kokava nad Rimavicou in Central Slovakia. He received secondary engineering education, followed by library studies and the study at an institute for civil service in Bratislava. While working as a professional cultural worker he attended long-term fine arts courses. He devoted himself applied arts and decorative crafts in metal and wire; he was attracted to sculpting, relief and medal. He learned the technique of metal casting, but also liked working with wood. Reportage and documentary photography played an important role in his life.
Rudolf Stehlík made his first Kyjatice-type toys in 1994. He finds inspiration in patterns coming from past toy makers. The range of toys he gradually reconstructed represents more than thirty types. He uses the original technique, making toys from a beech log. He dyes his products in various colours and decorates them with a special drawing pair of compasses with a cutting blade. He renewed the production according to archival documents of toys, many of them also according to museum collections. He reconstructed the work processes himself, just as the tools he uses. Colourfulness of his products complies with the original colour scale of brown, red, blue, yellow and green. Children toys from Rudolf Stehlík’s workshop of are part of the collection funds of a number of museums.