The Danish recycle artist Thomas Dambo<\/a> and his team have created 170 troll sculptures \u2014 including two in Colorado \u2014 from discarded materials such as wooden pallets, old furniture and wine barrels.<\/p>\n Twelve years after he started the \u201cTrail of a Thousand Trolls\u201d project, his sculptures can be found in more than 20 countries and 21 U.S. states. In Colorado, a troll named Isak Heartstone<\/a> is located in Breckenridge and another, Rita the Rock Planter<\/a>, is near Victor, south of Cripple Creek.<\/p>\n Each year, Dambo and his team make about 25 new trolls, which stand up to 40 feet tall.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe that we can make anything out of anything,\u201d said Dambo, speaking from his farm outside Copenhagen. \u201cWe are drowning in trash. But we also know that one man\u2019s trash is another man\u2019s treasure.\u201d<\/p>\n An installation of six sculptures called \u201cTrolls Save the Humans\u201d is on display at Filoli, a historic estate with 650 acres of forests and gardens in Woodside, California, about 30 miles south of San Francisco.<\/p>\n \u201cThey bring us back to be connected to the earth and to nature,\u201d said Jeannette Weederman, who was visiting Filoli with her son in July.<\/p>\n Dambo\u2019s trolls each have their own personality and story. At Filoli, the troll Ibbi Pip builds birdhouses, Rosa Sunfinger plants flowers and Kamma Can makes jewelry from people\u2019s garbage.<\/p>\n \u201cEach of them has a story to tell,\u201d said Filoli CEO Kara Newport. \u201cIt inspires people to think of their own stories, what kind of creatures might live in their woods and make that connection to living beings in nature.\u201d<\/p>\n Dambo\u2019s trolls don\u2019t like humans because they waste nature\u2019s resources and pollute the planet. The mythical creatures have a long-term perspective because they live for thousands of years and have witnessed the destructive force of human civilizations.<\/p>\n But the six young trolls at Filoli have a more optimistic view of human nature. They believe they can teach people how to protect the environment.<\/p>\n \u201cThey want to save the humans. So they do this by teaching them how to be better humans \u2014 be humans that don\u2019t destroy nature,\u201d said Dambo, 45, a poet and former hip-hop artist. \u201cThey hope to save them from being eaten by the older trolls.\u201d<\/p>\n Dambo\u2019s trolls are hidden in forests, mountains, jungles and grasslands throughout Europe and North America<\/a>, as well as countries such as Australia, Chile and South Korea. Most were built with local materials and assembled on-site by his team of craftsmen and artists with help from local volunteers.<\/p>\n \u201cMy exhibition now has four and a half million visitors a year globally, and it\u2019s all made out of trash together with volunteers,\u201d said Dambo. \u201cThat is such a huge proof of concept of why we should not throw things out, but why we should recycle it.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Isak](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/TDP-Z-Troll-SDN-062519-2.jpg\")
Isak Heartstone, a troll sculpture by Danish artist Thomas Dambo, at its site along Illinois Creek Monday June 24, near Breckenridge. (Photo by Hugh Carey\/Summit Daily, file)<\/p>\n