SAN KAKU MADO: The “Playful Window Mosaic”, A Small Toy With Endless Possibilities
According to designer Samira Boon: “The San Kaku Mado is a toy that can be played anywhere as long as you have a window to stick it to. It consists of a single form and material and sticks without glue.”
“I have made this toy because I want to help kids be creative, to teach them that they can make things themselves as long as they try. I think it is one of the most valuable lessons we can teach our children. They only need small things to make big things.”
“As a designer of products I always look for new materials. One of my favourite materials is a transparent vinyl that I started working with when I lived in Tokyo. It varies in beautiful colours and it even lights up when the sun falls on it. But that is not the only beauty, the most important is that due to its adhesive properties this material sticks to any flat surface, like mirrors and window.”
“The final design of the San Kaku Madu is very basic, it consists of a single form in only one size. Although it seems so unbelievably simple it took us a long time to come to this final design. We started off with many different forms and figures, but by trialling this we found out that all different forms and figures can be made from this single shap, as long as you use your imagination…”
“The San Kaku Mado will come in a flat transformable package that makes it easy to send to you. But once opened it becomes a box. open it. It is one of those things I learned from being a designer whilst working in Japan, put effort in everything you make. It saves parents from having it linger around the house but also makes it easier to take anywhere you go.”
“For instance when you are traveling; the kids can use it to play on the car window. It can even give your car the distinctive look of being full of creative people, which it actually is but goes un-notable when you don’t give kids the opportunity.”
“I sincerely hope that you like and can see the potential of this toy as much as the children around me. I have come a long way and it is not so hard to produce it. This is the last step to make a large production possible and send out to all children that would love to be creative and play with it. You can help me with this, therefor I ask you to make it possible to start the window playing everywhere. Together we can show people that we can all be creative.”