abel's toys
Instead of buying toys, you make simple playthings for your son, Abel. Tell us how this project started?
The project started last summer after we sold and donated pretty much all of our belongings and moved onto our sailing boat in Italy. Decluttering our life meant parting with most of our children’s toys too. These toys were mostly unused, abandoned after a few plays and stored in large boxes in the children’s bedrooms. I always felt so guilty looking at them. I thought they could make other children happy, so letting them go was actually a big revelation. We only kept a bag of wooden blocks, some favourite soft friends, simple classic games like cards and bananagrams, and the majority of their books.
What led you to this moment?
After moving onto a boat, our whole view of the world changed. We no longer needed distractions like the internet or movies or shopping. Our days were filled with reading books aloud, swimming, snorkelling, cooking together and, of course, lots of playing. I loved observing this quick evolution in my children’s behaviour—especially Abel, our middle son, who was three years old at the time. He played for hours with his small animal figures and used whatever he found for props: small pebbles, leaves, sticks, shells, plastic bottle caps. Suddenly anything could be turned into a toy. His imagination had escaped from the bottle and never stopped flying.
What’s the first thing you made for Abel?
During an especially rough crossing between Sardinia and Menorca (we spent forty-eight hours on the sea in rough conditions), I needed to supervise all three kids underboard while my husband
