Natural Wood Toys for Imaginative Play From Clover and Birch

Available on: Etsy
Seller: CloverandBirch

Four years ago, shortly after giving birth to her first daughter, Carden, Taylor Melton noticed something perplexing: “Carden had all of these toys, but she was never really interested in playing with any of them,” recalls Taylor. “I started looking around, and realized they were all very specific objects, like a plastic toy cell phone.” A lightbulb went off in her head.

“If you hand a baby a toy phone, it doesn’t really offer her the option to create something else out of it,” explains Taylor. “It’s only ever going to be a toy phone. But if you give her a wooden block, you can act like you’re talking on a cell phone, or pretend it’s a camera, or drive it around the carpet like it’s a car—suddenly, the possibilities are endless. Kids are so capable of entertaining themselves, but we often diminish that by giving them a very intentional-use toy.”

Taylor set out in search of non-prescriptive toys for Carden, but struggled to find quality, aesthetically pleasing pieces that wouldn’t break the bank. “I’ve always been creative and entrepreneurial, and I knew that I could make those items for much less and offer them to families like ours,” she says. She began sewing blankets and teething toys, and when her husband, Jason, came home on leave from the army, he built a simple set of blocks to add to the growing collection. Just like that, Clover and Birch was born. Read More Here