Customised Toy Chair - Barbie Doll

Challenge: For students to make customised furniture for Barbie Dolls for students to use in the junior classroom.

Challenge: This was an idea to get students thinking about making something to scale that had a specific purpose.   In our junior school our students have specific play time and creative play.   With some of these activities there are play elements - and one of the junior teachers wanted additional furniture that could be made by our students.

The challenge was simple - to make a series of chairs and a table that could work in conjunction with a regular set of Barbie toys.    This was the prototype design was made first by students attempting to solve the brief.  The first print was designed to take twenty minutes to print, based on the teachers experience there was no way that this was going to be able to create the design, however the print went ahead as we wanted to see the results.

Level of Difficulty: Low - the basic design was a standard chair with four equal feet and a basic back. 

Size: This design measured 20mm long (high) was 15mm wide and 15mm deep.   These designs were discussed prior to the printing, however it was apparent early on that the dimensions would not suit the purpose relating to a Barbie Doll and furniture.

Timeframe: This print came in at twenty minutes.   As a consequence of this it was easily identified as being not suitable for its initial purpose, however one of the students was quick to point out that in the classroom there was a second set of dolls which were in the Pollypockets range, and they wanted to try the chair with these dolls.   When this was done, as shown left, the students felt that they had achieved the purpose and the issue was now resizing the chair to work in conjunction with the significantly larger Barbie Dolls.

What we would do differently/next steps for students: The next steps for the students is of course to look at increasing the scale of the design to work in conjunction with the larger dolls.   Once this has been mastered then the next step in the process is to look at what additional items of furniture can be created.   One of the positive aspects of this challenge and task is that the model for the creations can be items in the classroom and ones that the students are familiar with which should significantly help with the modelling process.