Evol

Product Design, Milling, Lathing, CADing Individual Project

Evol is a set of therapy dolls that is designed to help young children communicate their emotions to parents and therapists. Each doll represents its unique set of abstract emotions, and allows children to interpret them in creative ways. Through play and storytelling, children would map their emotions onto the dolls and label the emotions. The dolls are made with cherry wood and colored silicone, two contrasting textures that further encourages children to touch and explore.

(2022)

How it all started?

I always like to send personified pictures of my stuffed animals to friends. One day, I realized how my mood at the moment could subconsciously affect the way I see my stuffed animals. For me, it is sometimes hard to describe my emotions at a particular moment, but describing the emotions of the toys with a piece of my reality in them appears to be a lot easier. I thought it would be interesting if I could make a set of toys through which children could talk about their own emotions more easily.

At the time, I did a handful of projects where technologies like 3D printing and laser cutting turned my digital design into reality. I knew I wanted to experience more fabrication processes and craft the final product with my own hands. I have always been drawn to the elegant and smooth aesthetic of wooden toys, and that is how I landed initially on Evol.

Lathe and Drill

I first modeled all the characters on Solidworks. Since each of them have slightly different body shape and head shape, I laser cut the half cross section of their body and head.

These are the half cross sections for each dolls. When I lathe my wood block, I could gauge whether I am getting to the desired size by placing it onto the wood piece as a reference ruler.

I started with a rectangular block and lathed it down to a cylinder, then, I lathed individual body parts and sanded the wood as much as possible on the lathe. I learned to navigate different tools and learned to go at specific angles so the tools don’t scratch the wood. Finally, I disassembled individual pieces and used a milling machine to smooth the ends.

Make 5 sets of standard bodies and heads

To maximize contact surface area, I left a connector part for the head to stick to the body. I then drilled the hole onto the body according to the size of the connector, and drilled the two eyes. I completed all five sets.

Personalize each doll!

I used an oscillating spindle sander to make the smooth and wavy part of the doll. Then, I applied blue silicone with a brush.

I used a Bridgeport mill to drill through the wood and applied pink silicone inside the empty hole.

I used an electric wood carving kit to carve out the lines. I filled the creases with silicone, waited it to dry and pulled out some of the dried silicone to make the strings look more three dimensional. Finally, I filled the creases with silicone again.