TOY DESIGN
I've crafted imaginative items, including recycled cardboard riding horses and bunny chairs, promoting sustainability and creativity in play. I've also designed educational games that foster learning about colors, shapes, and textures while encouraging social interaction with other children.
One key principle in my designs is considering the rapid growth and development of children. Each toy is created with the idea that it can evolve alongside the child, becoming more challenging and engaging as they mature.
TOPSY TURVY TOWER
Inspired by classic wood blocks and rock cairns, Topsy Turvy Tower is a unique building game that challenges your understanding of balance and gravity. The wooden rocks come in various sizes, each with faceted edges. One side is natural wood, and the other side features a colored rubber-like coating with engraved numbers for tactile learning.
Young children (ages 2-4) can enjoy simple counting, color recognition, and stacking. As they grow, the game evolves into a more complex challenge, involving dice to determine the next block to stack. The winner is the one who adds the most rocks before the tower topples, and other games introduce a touch of math, with each rock's number contributing to the score.
BRIDGE BUILDER
Geared toward kids aged 9 and older, Bridge Builder teaches valuable hands-on skills. Children learn to use basic tools such as screwdrivers and wrenches on screws, nuts, and bolts. They gain an understanding of matching the right tool for the job and proper technique, avoiding common pitfalls like stripping screws.
The challenge extends to recognizing the distinctions between screws and assessing their fit. As they progress, kids explore various truss bridge designs and learn what makes one configuration superior to another. This involves grasping the strength of basic shapes like triangles and squares. For older children, more advanced concepts, such as the impact of a single point of failure, can be introduced.
TOCTOUPUSS
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Tococtopus is a tactile smorgasbord—each of the 8 arms is made from different materials, ranging from canvas to velvet and rubber. The idea is to give an infant (ages 0-2) a variety of sensations and colors, while being soft enough to be a comfort and teething toy. The head of the toy is made with the typical, fuzzy stuffed animal material but makes a soft, crackly noise (like a foil bag) when handled. The eight arms are made of: canvas, corduroy, knitted yarn, braided rope, textured natural rubber, smooth natural rubber, satin, & velvet.