Children's Toy Design

A representative from a toy company contacted us in 1982 to talk about toy designs. He had seen my kinetic sculptures and wondered if I had ever thought of designing and licensing toy designs. This was also the year that our second daughter was born so we were getting well aquatinted with children and toys and the idea appealed to us. 

Our first design was the bicycling bear. Marji did the characterization and I did the mechanization. I built the model out of wood and Marji painted it and brought it to life. The toy company loved the idea but after a bit of research determined that it was too large (26 inches high x 22 wide) to make at a price people would be willing to pay. The mechanism didn't really lend itself to shrinking (the story of many of my designs!) so we had to put it aside. But the toy bug had bitten us and we started designing. We had an in house testing and inspiration department and the ideas just kept coming.

Eventually we licensed some designs and a few products actually came to market. In general though the final product bore no resemblance to our initial models and looked like every other cheap toy on the market. We grew disenchanted with the toy business at about the same time that our "inspiration and testing department" outgrew young children's toys. It was time to move on.

We have fond memories of that period. We had a great time designing together and with our kids. We met many wonderful people in and around the business. Probably most significantly to my current work, it was through the toy industry that I heard about constant force springs. You'll notice an abrupt change in power source between 1982 and 1983 in the sculpture archive.

Inspiration

Inspiration comes from many sources. David and I regularly go on “art” excursions – not to look for specific ideas but to be inspired by the astounding creativity of others. A regular October road trip is to the high-end Paradise City Craft Fair in Northampton, MA. David started his craft career showing at these type of events but now we go as observers and as craft collectors. We followed that with a weekend in NYC going to the Museum of Art and Design to see the Slash: Paper Under the Knife show. Well worth a visit. To follow in the same vein check out the work of Peter Callesen. Very intriguing.

Wave sculptures by Reuben Margolin

I'd LOVE to see this work in place. I've done a lot of thinking about wave generation but the energy input and complexity has always scared me off. Reuben Margolin took the challenge head on and came up with some amazing forms and motion.

"Off the Wall" kinetic sculpture

For most of my career I've made my sculptures as wall pieces. This summer I decided it was time to experiment with a freestanding piece. The result is Willow Wind.

The public reaction to this piece has been much more enthusiastic than I expected. I've had wonderful comments, lots of encouragement, and thankfully, orders.

It confirms my belief that this is an exciting new direction for my work. I look forward to the continuing exploration and journey.

Shimmer Kinetic sculpture

Shimmer is a new sculpture using the patterning wheel I designed for Radiance
but with a completely different mechanism. I explain the why's and wherefores of the creation of this piece more fully on my web site but it comes down to the fact that I had a patterning wheel I really liked and couldn't decide on the best mechanism to move it, so in the end I made them both.