The “troll bubble” is Danish recycle artist Thomas Dambo’s happy place.

The real world melts away when he’s inside the invisible cocoon of creativity. 

That currently includes his twin sons turning 1 year old on Saturday, occupancy issues with his home in Denmark, and having less than two months to achieve his goal of building 10 trolls across America in roughly four months.

Replacing life’s stresses is the magic that enables Dambo to assume the persona of the latest giant troll he’s shaping out of recycled wood in Victor.

In his make-believe world, the oversized trolls bring joy to the “little people,” or humans, and teach them Dambo’s mantra, that “something made of something old can be just as good, as valuable and as beautiful as something made of something new.”

For the next week, the sacred space for Dambo is off a scenic hiking trail in the small historic mining town of Victor.

On Friday, the site throbbed with sounds of sawing, hammering and drilling, with a variety of rap, reggae and country music playing from a large speaker plunked down.

A gentle breeze cooled the intense heat of the high-altitude sun and coaxed wildflowers to wave at workers.

The Sangre de Cristo range and Collegiate Mountains loom to the west, modern-day gold mining scars fill the opposite view, and two locals, Mount Pisgah and Grouse Mountain, rise up in another direction.

Nearby remnants of an 1800s blacksmith shop used during the Gold Rush days, when underground mining produced more than a king’s ransom, became a makeshift wood shop where volunteers fine-tuned the new troll’s hands.

Debbie Fung-A-Fat and her husband, James, drove in from Boulder, as two of 120 volunteers helping with the massive public art installation.

“I have a mild obsession with trolls,” she said.

The fascination has led to a troll-themed room in the couple’s Breckenridge getaway and trips to find other Dambo troll sculptures; the one in Victor is his 119th and the fourth of 10 in his coast-to-coast “Way of the Bird King” tour.

Imagining humans and trolls coexisting is not such a stretch when viewing his pieces, Fung-A-Fat said.

“To me they almost have real-life expressions, some sweet, some not so sweet,” she said. “They seem very personable.”

One reason might be the process Dambo uses in conjuring up his trolls. Each is unique and built specifically for the site in the community in which it lives.

The nonprofit Gold Mining District Impact Group asked Dambo in January to consider adding Victor to his list of upcoming projects.

After nine years of placing trolls in 17 countries, the requests are so numerous now that he cannot possibly fulfill all of them, said his wife, Alexa Piekarski, who works as The People Person for her husband’s company.

After consulting with an obtaining approval from local groups, Dambo scouts for a location for a new sculpture. Somewhere near public parking and away from homes, in a natural setting and a space where the troll will feel comfortable and welcomed.

“You can’t put a troll anywhere,” he said. “Maybe I’d like to put it on the moon, but I can’t. I would need a permit.”

Donning his troll hat, Dambo enacts the pose and story that comes to his mind with each proposal. Photos preserve the idea, and he carves the head, fingers and feet in his shop near Copenhagen, Denmark.

The rest of the sculpture is formed on-site, using scrap wood. The Victor troll will be made of about 150 old wooden pallets that volunteers are dismantling and reconfiguring.

“His brain is like a never-ending hamster wheel,” Piekarski says of her husband.

The Victor troll is a female whose name will be revealed at a public completion celebration at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 4, at Pinnacle Park Plaza, 109 N. 3rd St.

She will be kneeling with her hands outstretched and poised to simulate pushing rocks into holes in the ground that were made in early mining days as prospectors searched for gold ore veins.

Dambo said he hasn’t erected a sculpture on a mountain or used a Western theme before.

“To be here is to be living in a cowboy movie,” he said. “Also, being a little like a gold digger. It’s the perfect spot.”

The troll will feel at home in Victor, he said.

But what Dambo most appreciates about the area is the undeveloped land and abundant nature, which he said Denmark doesn’t have because people have not taken care of the land.

Dambo likes giving people a reason to leave their cars and enjoy the thrill of discovering his hidden-gem trolls in forests, near lakes, along hiking trails and at other unexpected locations.

“For me, it’s about people being brought together for an experience,” he said.

His favorite troll? That’s easy. It’s always the one he’s working on at that moment.

“As an artist, you have to believe it’s the best one you’re doing,” he said. “Otherwise, why do it?”