Three decades from the prewar boom of Estonian applied art and crafts, 'the Khrushchev Thaw' in the Soviet establishment made it possible for Estonian artists and crafts masters to make another attempt along similar lines. Under the auspices of the newly established Association of Master-Artists ARS, various items of jewellery and other artefacts were produced, and these have later come to be regarded as classics.

Unlike the national handicraft par excellence cultivated at UKU, the ARS products were more focused on the artist - the small number of copies did not rely so much on traditional ornamentation and topics.

Yet, neither were the products of ARS quite spared from the influence by folk art that at times materialised in a rather surprising manner. An exciting example here is the metamorphosis of the grapevine motif of the medieval stone carvings through the 'strawberry-twig ornament' on the back of a peasant's chair on to the clothes clasp made in ARS.