wooden/natural toys

[Dragonfly Fi]

we have just been looking at wooden toy houses/buildings online, plus little carved animals and vehicles

which has resulted in us purchasing 2 carving knives and deciding to go at it and carve some wee animals ourselves

its around 7 pounds for a small (tiny really) wooden animal and we will have great fun learning to carve them

will keep you posted with piccies and results xxx

 

[Dragonfly Fi]

here it is - first attempt

a snail

 

[kiki]

Wow, that looks great!!!

 

[Lacey's Mummy]

That's really good

 

[Rósa]

OMG that is awesome !!

 

[indigo]

That's fab! I love that you're doing it yourself. I really want to try and avoid filling the house with loads of plastic crap so will be looking to go down the wooden route.

 

[Sam's Mum]

Wow!! That's amazing How did you do it? Just from a block of wood with a knife then sand it down?

 

[Dragonfly Fi]

he cut the main shape with a handsaw, wittled it away to give it some depth and sanded it... took about an evening

hes doing a second snail now, and then a badger, fox and rabbit before moving on to some more exotic animals

two of each... for the ark (which he is also making) love my husband

 

[lauren86]

love it! Will you paint them? Xx

 

[Dragonfly Fi]

no we prefer them unpainted Liam will put minimal detail on by simply carving, that way if Jasper wants an evil snail and a happy tiger he can the risk with painting faces etc is that you deny creativity by making the toys speak for themselves, when actually what you want is the child to decide

 

[megsmeadow]

Oh that looks great!!! My grandad (sadly no longer with us) made our dolls house and all the furniture in it. He had a vice permanently attached to the kitchen table much to my granny's dismay He was always looking for bits of wood from skips and the likes. So much more personal and last longer too! Can't wait to see more of the Arc creations!!

 

[flexilexi394]

id love to be creative, but i honestly i have no creativity whatsoever, and what youve done really impresses me id love some of those for my little one x

 

[lauren86]

You have got to upload pics of the ark and animals in progress! I was at my postnatal group this week and a lady was explaining how imprtant it is for children to have toys that are not made of plastic - because not everything in this world is made of plastic. Things like wooden kitchen utensils and stones, shells etc are a lot of fun to play with and like you said they can decide if the object is angry,evil or happy!

 

[Dragonfly Fi]

i will certainly keep you posted on more arc/animal adventures

wooden toys are important, they are natural and fun and allow for more 'open' play, where things arent so decided for you almost

Liam is going to make a whole wooden kitchen and then we might open a wee etsy shop and see whether we can sell odd bits

 

[lauren86]

Let me know if you do!

 

[megsmeadow]

How are you getting on with the carving bigbump??

 

[Dragonfly Fi]

Liam has been busy fitting a kitchen and livingroom floor so not much time for carving He will get on it soon though promise to keep you posted xxx

 

[megsmeadow]

Well when he's finished there you could send him on over here! We've ground to a halt and still have the skirtings to do, tiles to re-grout, ah the list goes on!!