[004] The First Toymaker to the King

⭐ I am teaching lots of classes this summer, and there is room to sign up! Basketry and Woodcarving at the Mankato Makerspace, Toys and Games at the Arts Center of Saint Peter , and Toys and Games at North House Folk School ! ⭐

"Divination, and its spin-off, game-playing, came into this area of direct access which was held to be usurping the privilege of priesthoods, and many religious systems have concerned themselves with its suppression. The bypassing of authority by ordinary people has always been considered a threat by those in command, who have always attempted to stop it. [...] These prohibitions were usually extended further to include dice and board games, a tacit recognition that such games were more than mere diversions, having supernatural connotations." - Nigel Pennick, Secret Games of the Gods (1989)

I am very honored to tell you that I will be moving to Grand Marais this fall to participate in Cohort IX of the Artisan Development Program at North House Folk School !

The program is an intensive year of professional development, craft skill practice, mentorship, entrepreneurial skill-building, teaching, learning, and traveling. Every ADP chooses their area of study to pursue. Some good friends of mine have been part of the ADP program, and they have pursued craft traditions including weaving, basketry, boat-building, felting, furniture craft, and bowl turning.

Making It: Crafting A Life

Discover the future of craft in Grand Marais, MN. The Artisan Development Program at North House Folk School nurtures the next generation of makers. Explore…

My personal focus is toys, games, and puzzles. That's right: I will be the First Toymaker To The King !

There are lots of adjacent ideas to toymaking that I want to explore. In no particular order, I want to list some of my interests here. These are idea-seeds that I will be germinating during my time as ADP! If any of these strike you, or inspire you, or you know an interesting tidbit... tell me !

Froebel's Gifts

Friedrich Froebel is the inventor of Kindergarten. His ideas were radical, inspired, cohesive, and holistic. Lately, I have been reading the wonderful Inventing Kindergarten by Norman Brosterman about Froebel. Brosterman is defending a very challenging and fascinating assertion: Kindergarten created the cognitive foundation for the modern world!

This book is making the case that Kindergarten activities were the foundation for Modernist thought and inquiry. Many pages of the book have juxtapositions that depict a Kindergarten activity facing a Modernist painting, building, or other creative project. They match up so well!

Kindergartens were started all over Europe and America in the early 1800s, and they all used Froebel's particular set of toys - called Froebel's Gifts - to teach fundamental and universal lessons. These early Kindergarteners included Freud, Jung, Einstein, Mondrian, Proust, Bohr, Planck... well, you should just read Brosterman's summary:

Isn't that something?

So, this is one idea-seed to germinate: new toys bring new ways of thinking.

Sombertown vs. The Kringles

Santa Claus is Comin' to Town is the best movie of all time. It's for kids, it's from 1970, it's all made of freaking stop-motion puppets, and it is all about the liberatory power of toys. An insurgent revolution, led by children wielding toys, against the iron demiurgical fist of the Burgermeister Meisterburger who dominates Sombertown.

So, another idea-seed: toys can be radical, liberatory, revolutionary, a tool of insurrection against the dreary drudge of life in the imperial core.

Snakes and Landlords

Gyan Chaupar is a board game from ancient India. This is the original game that inspired both The Game of Life and Snakes and Ladders!

The snakes in this game represent sins: lust, deceit, wrath, that sort of thing. The ladders represent virtues: honesty, diligence, compassion, and so on. The people who made and played these games saw clearly what some people have forgotten nowadays, which is that games can encode very big and serious ideas.

Elizabeth Magie was a progressive socialist feminist, born in 1866, and the inventor of the game which came to be known as Monopoly.

What many folks don't know is that the original version of Monopoly was an educational game. The point of the game - which will come as no surprise - is that monopolies are miserable and unfun. Playing Monopoly is a hopeless grind towards poverty. Lizzie Magie knew this. That was the point of the game.

The game we know as Monopoly is only the first part of Magie's two-part game. The second half of the game was a monopoly-busting cooperative venture! The entire point of Magie's game was to be a teaching tool for young unionizers, socialists, and poor working folk. Life is better when we work together!

Amabel Holland made a fantastic video that goes into more detail on Magie and the idea of radical game mechanisms. It's brilliant. Watch it.

Mechanisms as Metaphors: How Board Games Create Meaning

A core source of meaning for board games are their mechanisms. But those mechanisms are more than just clever toys. They can allow board games to express ide…

So, another idea-seed: toys and games can be fundamental and foundational to the cosmology of a culture. At the very least, toys and games can be teaching tools which describe a better world.

King's Table

Hnefatafl (pronounced "neffa-taffle" and translated as "King's Table") is one of my favorite games. My friend Maeve Gathje and I occasionally teach a class on making your own Hnefatafl set ! From the archeological evidence, it seems the game was immensely popular everywhere from Ireland to Finland to Germany for several hundred years.

Because it was so widespread, there are an immensity of board sizes, rulesets, and piece configurations. The following images are from the excellent and concise An Introduction to Hnefatafl by Damian Gareth Walker .

Pieces have been found from a huge variety of materials, too. Bone, ivory, wood, stone, even glass!

Hnefatafl game boards have been found etched in the floor, made of leather, made of wood, and even scratched in the boards of a Viking-era ship.

So, an idea-seed: games change and grow and evolve. Games adapt to the local environment, just like any creature or any craft.

Right now, most of my research is taking place on are.na . Follow along if you dare.

playcræft | Are.na

games, toys, sports, and other sublimations of struggle

I'm not sure where this upcoming year will take me, but I know these seeds will grow, and I know I am eager to taste their fruit.

"It's a difficult responsibility / when you accept an appointment from His Majesty / you must strive for just the perfect quality / when you're the First Toymaker To The King!" - Santa Claus is Comin' to Town (1970)