I made Ruby a toy

By kate on July 25th, 2007

Lately, Ruby has been fascinated by plastic buckles, the kind you’d find on a backpack. She has spent a solid half hour intently futzing with the buckles on her booster seat. The problem is that she can eventually clip them, but can’t open them again, so she comes to me for help. After several repetitions of this, I began to design a solution: a toy with LOTS of buckles.

I started at the most excellent Seattle Fabrics, which is a great source for outdoor fabrics, including webbing and all kinds of fasteners. As I browsed, a plan took shape. I selected some buckles, webbing, and zippers. A helpful guy at Ace Hardware gave me a few suggestions, and I bought a couple of other supplies there. Then, I spent two naptimes constructing the project (I have yet to think of a good name for it).

The toy was designed to be flat, light, and therefore easily portable. It features five buckles, which can be buckled in any combination. There are also five zippers, because Ruby likes zippers too. (It is built on a thin piece of wood, so it’s firm enough to easily zip.) Inside each zipper is a hidden pattern or texture for her to discover.



front

back


buckled neatly

buckled randomly

Click to see inside each zipper…

RED
YELLOW
GREEN
BLUE
PURPLE

Ruby will try it for the first time tomorrow!

UPDATE (Aug 2008):  Since I posted this entry, two small family-owned companies have begun manufacturing buckle toys. Check out http://www.buckletoy.com and http://www.bucklepuzzle.com to see and buy their products.

Toy design, and all pictures, are copyright Kate Leroux, 2007.


Filed under: handiwork, parenting
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4 Comments

  1. Laura on 26.07.2007 at 13:15 (Reply)

    That is awesome … also, your pictures of Ruby are most definitely too cute!

  2. benjamin on 26.07.2007 at 19:03 (Reply)

    Wow! I want one! I promise I would share with my daughter. Imagine the possibilities with two of these toys….

  3. Hello, My Name Is Kate » Mexico trip recap on 02.09.2007 at 19:41 (Reply)

    […] a while eating, too (which used up the time). She was engaged by most of the new toys, and the buckle toy was particularly reliable as a distraction. We had lots of new toys left over, some of which we […]

  4. Kerry on 28.12.2007 at 07:36 (Reply)

    My niece loves buckles, and I am looking to get a toy or make one similar. What an amazing design! You aren’t selling them, are you?

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