Paragraph 1 + Video of play experience (my google drive is low on storage so I uploaded it):
My project 2 was making a cat toy, to which I called “Rat Rattle”. It is made for my cat doudou. He is an American shorthair tabby. He loves sounds, rat looking toys, fuzzy textured toys so he will really love it. The way that my cat will play with this toy is with ME! I can either pull on the strings for the rat to vibrate (which my cat can then play with the rat while it is moving) or I shake the toy around for the bell to ring and the strings to fly around (which my cat can chase after). If I’m not able to play with my cat then he can just play with the toy by himself as well since there is bell sound and the felt makes it scratch-able.
My understanding of play as an open-ended, creative process was shaped by *Abstract: The Art of Design* featuring Cas Holman where she said "easy is boring," emphasizing engagement through challenge. Inspired by her work and Brian Sutton-Smith’s exploration of play’s cultural significance (one of his key concepts being **ambiguity of play**, where he suggests that play takes many forms and serves different functions depending on context—ranging from creativity and improvisation to competition and storytelling), I designed my toy to encourage adaptability rather than a single way to play with it. My toy will create curiosity and engagement because my cat won’t completely understand what is happening initially when I pull it. If refined further, I would enhance its longevity by introducing more reconfigurable components or even consider different ways I can make it look! But I do think my choice of material is good because I can keep stabbing it with a needle if it needs a little fix and eventually it can become bigger.
Overall I learned a lot about needle felting because I remember the first time I tried it I couldn’t control how the felt looked and it was super patchy. The second time it was better but it was super soft. For this rat rattle toy however I was able to make it super durable (meaning I spent a long time stabbing) and hard while having it look smooth with the different colors. Trying to stab with the interior mechanisms (bell ball and vibrating motor) was super time consuming because it was hard on the inside. I learned that stabbing the needle down the side of the plastic was easier than stabbing directly into the plastic. The feedback that I received from my class mate was that I can add a stick. Which I can totally see being another playing method but I think I would have to consider about the vibration and bell and where to put the stick so that it doesn’t affect the way it moves. But definitely valid and if I had more time I would try to incorporate that. In terms of my choice of rat, I knew that my cat gets bored of balls and he likes every rat toy that I get him. If I made an irregular organic shape my cat possibly could’ve liked it but I think he would get bored too, like the ball. But nonetheless I could’ve have tested out further instead of sticking with a rat. I’m most proud of the shape of the rat and how everything looks so fun and cohesive (since I chose colors that my cat can see) and my choice of material because it can grow!
Photos:
Poster:
gets bored easily with existing toys
likes chasing after string
likes furry things
uses teeth (material that withstands biting?)
colors (what can my cat actually see)- blue yellow green gray
breaks toys easily (soft toy ofc)