In this PlaySets Influences post I'd like to talk about a play thing I had as a child that allowed me make my own scenes but this time with fabric..
Namely felt - and Fuzzy Felt at that!
So what is Fuzzy Felt, read on and I'll share my memories.. Before I begin though I was surprised to find out sets are still being made and are available to buy at Amazon!
Thinking back I actually had a couple of sets, so first up I'll talk about the simple shapes set.
In a box the size of that you might expect to find a jigsaw puzzle, there was a couple of felt boards I would use as a base for the picture / scene. Along with the boards in this set there were basic shapes such as circles, squares, triangles etc as well as silhouette shapes of things like people and balloons, all in a verity of solid colours, as you can see in this classic Celebration Set It was as simple as picking the shapes and placing them on the board and the felt pieces would 'stick' to the back board and each other.
It seemed like simplicity was the point with
these sets, and a focus on trying to use the simple pieces to build up pictures rather than giving you the full picture strait out of the box.
So for example a big square piece for a house, then smaller squares stick on top for windows, and an oblong for a door..
Get Your own set HERE
These days people like artist Jacopo Rosati are creating works such as these cool pop- icon super hero images with simple felt pieces!
...Makes me wonder how the JMKit characters might look made of Felt Pieces!
The other set I remember had more detailed pictures that were more for setting up scenes and telling stories, similar to Sticker Books, you can see closer connections to the JMKit PlaySets and specifically the Make-A-Scene Games in these sort of sets. Mine was based on the British kids tv character Noddy.
As a child myself I remember enjoying the simplicity of Fuzzy Felt, and the tactile feel of it as I played around with it, just had to be careful not to be too heavy handed as I remember tearing a piece or two along the way, but as a creative play thing it was a fun first step into scene making!
As for kids today, they are still making these kind of sets based around new childhood favourites with sets from Disney Princesses, Paw Patrol, My Little Pony and Minnie Mouse
Dont forget to check out the Amazon Toy Store page on JMKit.com as you'll find links to all these available products and as a bonus if you buy them through the links on the site you'll be helping to support the future of the JMKit Games and the new PlaySets game!