Oliverblythe's Blog
Wood
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Just an update on the type of timber im using for the finals: its an australian hardwood called rose mahogany (its also known as rosewood). Its grown in queensland, so its an australian timer which is good. it also has a very nice dark-ish colour that comes up very nicely when oiled up etc.
a site which iv found which has some info is:
The down side is that its pretty hard, which makes it an absolute nightmare to work with (well, for someone whos not that experienced like me…guess it would probably be easier for someone who was experienced at lathing). It basically means that the tools need to be sharpened extremely regularly, and youve got to be very careful about trying to take too much off at the one time while lathing, because it can dig in and take huge chunks out (which therefore ruins the look). But, although it is hard to work with, it looks like it should come up nicely in the end which is nice.
Although its slow going because of the timber, it is quicker in terms of knowing what to do/how to do it (because its all been done before) so i know how to do it etc.
heres some photos too, just to give an idea of what the wood colour is like (tho it obviously changes a bit when oiled). Ill post more up over the next few days…
update
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this week iv been doing a collection of different things (while i sort out getting the right wood for my final pieces). iv been making the model of the snake (which curves around the maraca) so that i can then make molds off that to make the final silicon/rubber ish one. iv also been doing quiet a bit of work on the music cards, which are starting to come along nicely. iv also been looking up woods, and places that sell it, so that i can find some nice stuff and make the final versions of the models. on top of that iv been making adjustments to the designs: not the shapes, but the aesthetics…basically id been planning on painting the toys bright colours when they were done, but now that they arent going to be painted, iv had to make some minor adjustments to how id go about making them (and how id still capture the same feel without the use of bright colours etc).
Final Models
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Just an update: I’ve started making the final models and I’ll have what I’ve done at class on wednesday. I’ve been using a lathe to make them: basically making blocks of wood then carving them down to circles, then I’m going to build them from up again from there (sticking the more detailed parts on them). Ive got the main body for the maracas made, and will start testing different materials for the inside over the next few days. I’v also got a LOT of photos, so I’ve only uploaded a few of them (cos it would take too long otherwise) iv posted some photos of one of the maracas cos its the one ive got the most photos of (and is the most complete at as I’m posting)
Final Models
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I spent quite a long time yesterday talking to my grandpa (who used to be a carpenter) talking about different ways to go about making the final wood models. At this stage I’m going to be laminating wood to build up the shapes, then sanding back to get details etc. It also looks like I’m going to use pine to make the models.
I’ll be starting to make the final models (while continuing to design the holder board and the card system at the same time) over the next week or so, with the aim of getting them done as quickly as possible so that i can (hopefully) test them on children.
Clay Models
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These are some of the photos of the final (mockup) scale models. These are exactly (except for some minute details like eyes etc) what the final wood toys will look like. The only ones here that I’m not really happy with are the Safari Explorer Conductors Stick and the Turtle Drum. The Turtle Drum is more to do with scale and size etc, so I’m going to make another version of it. But the Safari Explorer Conductors Stick has been quite a problem: it was difficult enough to make it with clay, which means that its going to be very hard to make it out of wood. So it might need some re-designing.
Elephant Trumpet:
Fish Xylophone:
Frog Tone-Block:
Hippo Castanet:
Safari Explorer Conductors Stick:
Snake Maracas:
Turtle Drum:
Sketches
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Heres some sketches of what my final designs are looking like
Elephant Trumpet:
Fish Xylophone:
Frog Tone-block:
Hippo Castanet:
Safari Explorer Conductors Stick:
Snake Maracas:
Turtle Drum:
Kindergarden Meeting
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I went out to my sisters school to have a chat with one of the kindergarden teachers there, and it was one of the best things iv done so far. She gave me HEAPS of useful ideas/ wyas that it could be used, as well as outlining ways that my design could help children develop. She also loved the idea of having different textures etc on the instruments, saying that it would help partially blind children, children with autism, and children asbergers (not sure if thats how you spell it… 
). For the partially blind children it would help because it helps them to explore the toy, and with the children with autism and asbergers, they usually don’t like sensory things, so if they can be drawn to the toy by visuals etc, then they will explore the touch etc of the toy as well, even though they don’t like doing it. I think iv explained that pretty badly, but its very exciting to see the different ways that the final design will be able to be used, and to see the design growing and developing.
After talking to her I’m also working a new aspect into the design: there will be cards with music on them that the children can play, which will help to build literacy skills. There would be at least 3 different levels of difficulty/complexity, which also helps the design to be able to ‘grow’ along with the child.
Argh
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I’ve misplaced my sketchpads at the moment, so its made it difficult to sketch stuff (I’m using an A4 pad until i can buy a new A3 one, or find my other ones) which is very annoying. I’m hoping I’ll get it back tomorrow tho, so hopefully that works out.
Other than that I’ve been working on the way that the toy would be useful in developing children’s skills. I’ve been talking to my sister about it (she’s a kindergarden teacher) and have got a lot of direction from that. Basically she suggested that the best way to go might be to design it as a group activity thing where the children would each play with one of the set, and then they each have to play their instrument at a certain time. This helps to develop their social skills (by interacting with other children), their concentration skills (by making sure that they play at the right time) and their memory skills (by making sure they remember when they have to play e.g what sound/animal). It also helps to develop they skills needed to play the instruments as well. So it obviously needs development etc, but from talking to her it has helped me to get some real direction.
From here I’m going to develop the ideas from above, then take them to the kindergarden that my sister works at and get some input/feedback from other teachers there as well
Playing together
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This one shows the way that children can play together, using two copies of the toy (or even just two parts of the same toy)
The Dancing aspect
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This is showing the way that sounds/music can be create by children, then they can use the sounds/music to dance to etc.
