About the service
I make wooden teaching aids to order — inset frames, counting material and lacing toys. The first thing I ask about is the child's age, because that single answer decides every dimension on my drawing. For a two-year-old everything is deliberately large: pieces too big to end up in a mouth, and thick peg handles sized for a small pinch grip rather than for a photograph. Small elements — beads, narrow number tiles, slim inserts — I make only for older children, and I say it plainly in the note that goes with the box: those need an adult sitting nearby. Laces are cut short on purpose, just long enough to thread and pull, so that they cannot be wound around a neck; the spare laces I send are the same length, not longer.
The wood is sanded in several passes, corners and edges are rounded, and end grain gets its own pass — a splinter in a child's tray is worse than any crooked line. The finish is a plain safe oil or wax, and the piece airs out on my shelf until the smell is gone instead of travelling to you in a sealed bag. Care is simple: wipe it with a damp cloth and dry it off. Do not soak it and do not put it in a dishwasher, because wood swells and the insets stop fitting their sockets.
What I do not sell is pedagogy. I will not tell you what a set will do for a child — that is between you and your teacher. My part of the job ends where the inset drops into its socket softly and without a knock, the numerals read from across the table, and the box still holds together at the end of the year.
— inset frames with peg knobs: geometry, animals, whole-and-parts;
— a set of geometric solids — sphere, cube, cylinder, cone, pyramid, prism;
— lacing toys: a button, a shoe, a silhouette with holes along the outline;
— counting material: sticks, discs, rods, cards with numerals and signs;
— a board with slots and moving parts — sliders, bolts, turning bars;
— a kindergarten group order: one batch of wood, identical execution;
— light storage boxes with labelled lids;
— repairs later and replacements for lost pieces — I keep the measurements.
The wood is sanded in several passes, corners and edges are rounded, and end grain gets its own pass — a splinter in a child's tray is worse than any crooked line. The finish is a plain safe oil or wax, and the piece airs out on my shelf until the smell is gone instead of travelling to you in a sealed bag. Care is simple: wipe it with a damp cloth and dry it off. Do not soak it and do not put it in a dishwasher, because wood swells and the insets stop fitting their sockets.
What I do not sell is pedagogy. I will not tell you what a set will do for a child — that is between you and your teacher. My part of the job ends where the inset drops into its socket softly and without a knock, the numerals read from across the table, and the box still holds together at the end of the year.
— inset frames with peg knobs: geometry, animals, whole-and-parts;
— a set of geometric solids — sphere, cube, cylinder, cone, pyramid, prism;
— lacing toys: a button, a shoe, a silhouette with holes along the outline;
— counting material: sticks, discs, rods, cards with numerals and signs;
— a board with slots and moving parts — sliders, bolts, turning bars;
— a kindergarten group order: one batch of wood, identical execution;
— light storage boxes with labelled lids;
— repairs later and replacements for lost pieces — I keep the measurements.
