Foraged Friends is a play kit, that encourages children to explore their outdoor surroundings and imgainations through the creation of their own characters. The kit provides children with carefully crafted materials and framework to create their own ‘Friends’ through exploratory play, while also fostering a healthy middleground between Paidia and Ludus play theories.
The Field Book include simple starting instructions to explain foraging, as well as space to create a birth certificate, and a number of other simple, thought-provoking questions to support in further developing the personality of the Friend. A simple recipe for our play dough is also included in the book; so that children can continue to create and explore without the limitations of a single-use kit.
The carry bag replaces traditional cardboard and plastic based packaging. We used hand felting techniques to construct New Zealand wool into an egg-shaped vessel. Small pockets are stitched inside to house crayons and a fieldbook.
There are three featured colours of our playdough; pink, red and green. The dough is edible, and is dyed with pigments derived from vegetables such as beetroot juice. This ensures that both children and the planet are kept safe.
Our character aids consist of a mixture of animal-related and organic and abstract shapes. Through our play testing we discovered that these small aids helped the children to develop their characters further when they felt stuck, or unsure of themselves.
The addition of eyes - hand painted pumpkin seeds - in a variety of patterns and colours, further the Friend’s character development, and support children in creating further identity and personality for their Friend.
Our aim with creating Forged Friends was to make the kit as child friendly, and environmentally friendly, as possible. A number of aspects of the Foraged Friends play kit that would traditionally be mass manufactured - such as packaging, playdough, character aids - were created by hand using traditional crafting techniques such as felting and painting. Our character aids that utilise 3D printing methods do so mindfully; using durable, long-lasting resin prints rather than traditional PLA ensure that our components can last a lifetime.
