Jenny’s Home was a 1960s dolls’ house range made by Spot-on (Lines Brothers Group)

Welcome to the first blog for the British Toy Making Archive!.

The project centres around 4 of the great, but now defunct UK toy makers of the 20th century: Lines Bros (including brands, Tri-ang, Pedigree, Frog, Rovex and more) Palitoy, Mettoy and Abbatt Toys whose archives are all held at the museum. The archive also includes loads of material relating to a wide range of other toy manufacturers and the history of toy making. Over the next 3 years we will highlight some of these through the website, an exhibition, a conference, makers and study days as well as having a research facility at the museum and online catalogue.

We have already had a lot of interest in the project (from a range of toy collectors, people who used to work in the industry, historians, design students, education specialists and beyond) and I am really looking forward to seeing what other areas of the archive people are interested in and what information you may have to share with us… Get in touch!“

FREITAG Limited Art Edition 2009

The Contemporary Art of Art Recycling: “Normally we cut up trucks. For this collection we cut up art. The furiously Limited Art Edition of FREITAG bags is made from banners of the world’s most sizzling Contemporary Art Museums. Click on the museum’s name to find out when the series launches in the FREITAG online shop.”

via visual culture

Dream, create, collect and color your world with 500 pencils.

“What would you do with 500 colors? Introducing the only set of colored pencils in the world that matches the span and wonder of human creativity. With 500 colored pencils, amazing things can happen. Specially yours. We’re excited to share 500 Pencils with you. Available for order only through March 2010.

500 Pencils = 25 colors x 20 months

This is how it works: We send you 25 colors a month from Japan for 20 months, packaged in like tones and hues.

We believe the greatest beauty of 500 Colored Pencils is that as you build your collection, the pencils become your story and experience. They are a living, changing work of art: both tools for your creativity and objects to admire.

Spark your imagination 500 times over. Over the 20 months, we’ll be hosting a variety of competitions, from poster design to creating our next product.

We look forward to seeing what you imagine. Color your world!”

—–The Team at Felissimo

The L-Shaped Classroom: A Pattern for Promoting Learning.

“…the environmental qualities of classrooms—high/low, open/closed, big/little, vertical/horizontal—do indeed affect the learning process in young children”

—- Dyck, J. A. (1994, November). The case for the L-shaped classroom: Does the shape of a classroom affect the quality of the learning that goes inside it? In Principle Magazine, pp. 41-45.