Can you make your own sand toys from sand?

Scoop

Barbara Janina Koniecka
Maximilian Carl Stahl

Student
Barbara Janina Koniecka Maximilian Carl Stahl
Academic staff
Aart van Bezooijen
Course
Findings On Soil
Program
MA Eco-Social Design
Semester
2023/24 WS

With this DIY kit we created you can make your own sand toys for playing in the sandbox or anywhere in nature.

The ingredients are premeasured to make the first two shovels. After that, you can easily find the materials you need and repeat the making process as often as you like.

Like many elements in nature, our shovels will eventually break down. Once the natural components dissolve, the biological cycle is complete. 

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Scoop DIY KIT

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Scoop kit includes all the ingredients you need to make a pair of biodegradable toys

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We made the toy molds from stainless steel. Thanks to the perforation, the drying process is faster

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Stackable transport

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Molds and final sand toys

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Our Scoop box becomes also a sandbox

How to make your own sand toys

Scoop is a new alternative to poor-quality plastic children's toys, which quickly deteriorate during play and when left in the sandbox or on the beach become harmful trash.


With this kit you can make your own biodegradable toys! The set includes two metal paddle molds, a bag of potato flour, sand and instructions. All the other necessary tools each of you has at home. You can repeat the making process as many times as you want.

The wooden scoop box becomes a portable sandbox.

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Simple instructions make the DIY process fun and easy

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Dry toy after baking

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Take your sand toys with you in the scoop box - a portable sandbox

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Laser cut metal sheets

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Prototyping process

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Bending and forming

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Final molds

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A project made in the course

Findings On Soil

Life on earth depends on healthy soils. As part of hands-on materials education, young Eco-Social Design students at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano explored soil as a do-it-yourself material for art, design and architecture. Through practical exercises and guest workshops we examined its properties, everyday uses, and future possiblities. Collaborating with the BITZ unibz fablab, a community workshop for hobbyists, researchers and students based in Bolzano, we developed experimental kits to (re)connect and engage people with soil.
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