Welcome to the Wonderful World of Wooden Toys!
ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WAS A MAN WHO LOVED TO MAKE TOYS…
According to his mother, Peter Stevenson, the founder of Stevenson Projects, started making toys when he was a toddler. He would glue sticks together to make little boats and float them in mud puddles. Later he would saw the ends off her broom handles when he needed a spindleshaped part for one of his toy car projects. His creator’s “eye” could see how the bottom of a trash can would make a toy airplane part, or a kitchen strainer was the ideal shape for a car’s headlight. In the heat of Peter’s innovative and inspirational moments, no kitchen utensil was sacred!
As you can see, Peter had his own ideas about how a toy should be made, and as he grew up, his beliefs didn’t change. When his son Mike was born in 1965, he proclaimed that there was no plastic toy on the planet that was worthy of Mike’s attention, so he proceeded to make a collection of incredible wooden toys that were destined to become classics. His designs have been copied for years (always the sincerest form of flattery, they say), and his many books on making toys are still available today.
The hallmarks of a Stevenson toy are that it must first of all delight the child for whom it is intended, and second, be easy to build. We are now pleased and proud to introduce many of his most popular designs in digital form so that you can create classic heirlooms for your own children. Mike is now very grown up, but he still has every one of the toys his father built for him over 50 years ago, and he continues to create toys today as he learned from his father Peter, keeping the tradition alive.
We hope that the toys you build from these plans will become a special part of your own family’s history, just as they have for ours.
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