Handmade toy company finds its home in Floyd
Monthly Tinkering paint parties have included a Mother's Day theme in May and a Father’s Day theme in June. The next Tinkering event is scheduled for Aug. 8 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and will have a back-to-school theme with “Buffalo pencil holders” to paint
Tuggles Gap Wooden Toy Company and Tinkering Studio celebrated its grand opening with a ribbon cutting earlier this month. Located downstairs in the Winter Sun Building at 302 Locust St., the storefront features handcrafted wooden wheeled toys, rattles, puzzles, rocking horses, and more.
The shop even hosts hands-on painting parties and rents out their unique event space for private events that include birthdays, workshops, baby showers, and more.
Wooden toys are crafted on site by master toymaker Enone Mellowspring and at the family’s homestead, Mellowspring Family Farms, located on Tuggles Gap Road, shop's namesake and where much of the creative woodworking has taken place. Mellowspring’s wife, Amanda, helps with cutting and sanding toys, but she has focused primarily on managing the legal requirements of running the business. The couple’s son Enso (13) has worked by his father’s side since he was little. He has provided a child’s insight and inspiration for many of the toy designs.
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Mellowspring, who grew up in Seattle, Washington, comes from a family of artists and has been part of the Pacific Northwest art circuit. Along with making wooden toys and furniture for over two decades, he has worked in a variety of art mediums that have included making clothing, making musical instruments, and creating stage sets and costumes for a theater troupe circus.
The Mellowsprings came to Floyd County 12 years ago, drawn by Floyd’s agriculture and artisan communities. “After traveling and living all over the country, we settled into our dream of homesteading here in Floyd in 2013,” the toy shop’s Facebook page reads. After their sheep flock on their working farm was lost to bear attacks, the way opened for making more toys and for launching the Tuggles Gap Wooden Toy Company in downtown Floyd.
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Mellowspring’s toys have been featured at Winterfest and the Floyd Artisan Trail. He said the foot traffic at the storefront is "slowly picking up. Every week gets a little better. We just went live with our webpage (where customers can place orders).” Puzzles are popular, he reported, noting that they have sold out but that he has been working on a new inventory.
There is a wooden Floyd train set on display in the shop and Mellowspring’s rocking horses are eye-catching. They rock, but they’re not all horses and include a unicorn and a moose. Back at the family farm’s artisan barn, where Mellowspring creates larger toys, he has a red-nosed reindeer and a buffalo. “We’ve had folks of all ages rocking on these,” he said.
Monthly Tinkering paint parties have included a Mother's Day theme in May and a Father’s Day theme in June. The next Tinkering event is scheduled for Aug. 8 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and will have a back-to-school theme with “Buffalo pencil holders” to paint, Mellowspring said.
At the recent Small Town Summer in the park adjacent to the storefront, Mellowspring opened the back entrance. There was a rocking horse for event visitors to try and a bubble machine that blew a stream of cascading bubbles. Mellowspring hasn’t lost his childlike imagination and is full of ideas for the store, taking it one step at a time.
The Toy Company’s events and offerings are posted on its Facebook page and have recently included a series on Meet the Team and Gratitude. Mellowspring summed up his take on being a new artisan business in downtown Floyd.
“We found our home in Floyd. We got here as soon as we could,” he said.
Regular open hours for the storefront are from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays; from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. on Saturdays; and from noon until 6 p.m. on Sundays.
