Starter Kit. Idea 57 of 500. Cluster 3
Children's toys in wood and cloth
The mechanism, from the book
The Zermatt water bottle. Sigiriya has not got a stone with its own name on it.
The first step
Ask a carpenter and a seamstress to make one wooden elephant and one cloth doll, then leave them in the children's corner of a family-friendly guesthouse for a week. Note which ones children play with and which parents ask about. Offer those parents the toy at a stated price. Sales from that one shelf are the proof.
- Who pays first
- Parents travelling with children who want a safe, local toy as a gift, and guesthouses with many families as guests.
- What leaves today
- Toys sold to visiting families are often plastic imports; wood and cloth made here keep the gift, and the money, local.
Ask first
- Sri Lanka Standards Institution. Ask what safety standard toys for small children should meet.
- Forest Department. Ask which woods can be legally bought for making toys.
Check before you spend
That paints and finishes are safe for children, that small parts cannot be swallowed, and that toys meet the safety rules where you sell.
Find out these three numbers
- What will parents pay for a wooden toy at a heritage site?
- What does one toy cost to make safely?
- Which shops abroad stock handmade wooden toys?
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.