The Black Forest Tin was originally designed in 2018, and since bringing it back last year, it’s quickly become one of our bestselling tin designs. Early pre-orders mean that this design is already nearly sold out for our 2026 season, so if you have your eye on this tin, we suggest ordering it as soon as possible.
A picturesque mountain region in southwest Germany named for the dense, dark evergreen woods that cover its hillsides, the Black Forest (Schwarzwald) is also known for its distinctive traditional architecture and folk customs.
Our design partners Christine and Eric of Strohl explain how they set out to capture the magic of the Black Forest with this tin:
“Instead of drawing a continuous scene, we chose to approach the tin with little “day in the life” vignettes expressing the unique features of the region. The hexagonal pattern that we decided on feels really dynamic and gives you the sense that you’re peering into the scene from the comfort of your own home.
As always, we map out the pattern carefully before we begin drawing. We had room for four little scenes, and wanted to alternate between people and objects.”
While traditional folk costumes (Tracht) of the Black Forest vary by village, we knew that the tin should include the most recognizable symbol of the region, the Bollenhut. The broad-brimmed straw hat is covered with large woolen pom-poms, colored bright red when worn by unmarried women and black when worn by married women.
"Schwarzwälder Trachten" is marked with CC0 1.0.
Strohl opted to sketch with markers for this tin to keep the graphics bold and without unnecessary ornamentation.
For the next scene, we turned to another visual symbol of the region: the cuckoo clock. The Black Forest is considered the birthplace and epicenter of cuckoo clock making, the craft having grown out of the region’s clockmaking tradition and abundance of timber and skilled woodworking know-how.
Traditional cuckoo clocks are hand-carved and often feature detailed scenes of forest life reflecting the surrounding landscape and culture, which Strohl tried to reflect in the sketches.
As the Black Forest Tracht for men is less instantly recognizable than that for women, and also because the men’s traditional dress is dark and not as festive, admittedly we took some liberties when deciding how to costume the gentleman to accompany our fair maiden.
Strohl dressed him in his finest lederhosen and a dapper cap:
Black Forest architecture is dominated by half-timbered buildings and traditional farmhouses (Schwarzwaldhäuser) with enormous sloping roofs, which help shed heavy snowfall during the region’s harsh winters.
"Altes Schwarzwaldhaus" is marked with CC0 1.0.
"Hornberg in the Black Forest" by perpetualplum is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Strohl describe the last steps of the design process: “We rounded out the tin with a scene featuring a half-timbered cottage and little triangular patterns – much like adornments carved into wood – to fill in the spaces. After finishing our sketches, we brought the artwork onto the computer for final compositional refinements and coloration.”
A story told in four scenes, the final Black Forest design is intended to capture the folk traditions, craftsmanship, and old-world charm of this enchanting part of the world.
