Cardboard Critters are
free-to-access templates for kids of all ages to make toys.

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Why Cardboard?

Accessibility and sustainability

Cardboard is a cheap material that many people already have! It's widely available as post-consumer waste and is fully recyclable and biodegradable.

Material Properties

Cardboard has incredible properties that allow us to make things with it! It's structural, easy to cut and fold, glues well, and is great to draw on.

Why Toys from Templates?

Accessible Education

In short- Free art education is good! Free toys are good! These projects are designed to open the doors to art and STEM fields.

Sustainability

To build from often overlooked post-consumer waste is an act of anticonsumption. These projects teach "reduce, reuse, recycle, rethink" through real practice.

How it Works

Cardboard Critters can be discovered through public spaces such as museums, libraries, and schools. Workshops can also happen in these spaces to bring people in through events.
Each project has its own life in making- from collecting materials and tools, to learning new skills through creation.
Each project has its own life in use- from different movements to sharing games with friends.
Each project remains recyclable when people no longer want to hold on to it.
Workshops and a newsletter with new designs can keep people in the system.

Design Through Making

My process began with focus on the materials- Spending weeks building a vocabulary of what it means to work with cardboard through hands-on experimentations.

These experimentations pulled from various fields of knowledge such as bookbinding, pop-up book engineering, woodworking, and fiber arts.