Children are perfectly capable of playing with sticks, pots, and TV remotes. There is no answer to the question of whether we buy toys for ourselves or for our children. But toys can be the very bridge that connects us and gives us a pleasant time together.
At Raduga grёz, we try to make toys not just objects, but to fill them with meaning, so that parents can play and talk with their children, so that toys are filled on a par with listening to music and reading books.
We produce toys in collections and our latest collection is dedicated to Slavic fairy tales. Everything in childhood seems magical, and this collection is created to bring kids into a fairy tale world.
The collection is dedicated to the Slavic fairy tales as a response to globalization. We want to show the Slavic world. Not souvenir, but traditional, full of meanings, handmade. Creating this collection, we remembered cathedrals, white outside and very colorful inside, fairy tales with beautiful illustrations, hikes to the woods for mushrooms.
It is a bright, colorful collection for those who celebrate childhood and life. For those who love play, tradition and wooden toys.
On the photo:
Cathedral Big Building Blocks
These are the first sketches Inna drew, and the ingenious ideas her 2.5-year-old daughter gave her.
In Russia, there is a proverb – bread is the staff of life. And this is the start of a toy - the first sketches of toy bread. Not a burger, not a candy, but bread. Because in the game, too, there must be a good example. Play is a rehearsal for life. We made samples, realized that one bun was missing, and drew it right there on the packing table.
The most playful toy I know is the nesting matryoshka. And we made it in the cutest mushroom and acorn shape. Our craftsmen make it in the highest quality.
This is the prototype of a Matryoshka Acorn. Now we made the bottom plate larger, so that the toy was more stable, and changed the shape of the cap.
A large acorn hides a smaller acorn inside, less inside it, even less inside it, and finally the smallest one. Matryoshka dolls symbolize growth, life and growing up. We have made a toy that has been loved by generations and combined it with forest motifs, which are so lacking in modern children.
And this is a round pyramid and three options for the top. We settled on the one on the pyramid, but the other two were nice too.
We also had an idea to create ladder blocks. In the Russian north, wooden shingles used to decorate wooden churches were of this shape. But these stairs turned out to be difficult and time-consuming to make. We realized we would not have them in stock all the time and decided not to make them after all.
We know that you like arch stackers very much, so we made one in Slavic collection, too. Do you know which one of these four is in our collection? But we plan to stop making arcs in this format, we have so many of them already! So, be aware, there won’t be any new colors for the arch stacker.
We thought about making the Cupolas Building Blocks flat or volumetric. But the volumetric version is difficult to stack in a pallet. It is made by hand by lathe method, and it is very difficult to make parts of super exact size. That is why we chose the classic flat version.
On the photo:
Cupolas Building Blocks
Inna always does a big resurfacing before starting the work. The top part of the theatrical work of the Russian artist Bilibin inspired her to make the Cathedral Big Building Blocks. In this builder we did something we had not done before – set a perspective.
On the photo:
Cathedral Big Building Blocks
Our Domes Instead of Cubes are packaged in the same box as the Cubes. They can be an alternative to them or serve as a supplement. They are so cute.
Each toy undergoes many edits in shape and color before becoming the final version.
We pay a lot of attention to the color of toys. Each toy should be attractive for children and look beautiful in the nursery. We always choose sophisticated shades. This time we chose bright, saturated colors. Wanted a holiday!
That is how the collection was made! It took us four months to prepare it and it was a great job. We are so happy that these toys resonate in your hearts. Play with joy!
Photo:
Karina Zhukovskaya
Style:
Zalya Shokarova
Video:
Julia Komis
