Toymaker crafts project to have toy-lending library

MILLBROOK —  Imagine a toymaker with a shop deep in the woods, a mystical place where the most wonderful toys are made — strange beasts, cows with wings, yellow zebras with blue stripes and orange duck feet. There are elephants with wings, eagles that catch fish, dragons and multicolored caterpillars, all with moving parts.

There is such a place, and it is full of toys created by local artist Kardash. His studio is in Stanfordville, in a site he has called home for more than 40 years. On the property are some pieces he sculpted, but the toys came about when he started creating them for his son, and now his 6-year-old grandson. Other children have also been recipients of his creations.

Kardash realized that even the most beloved toys are outgrown, and he had the idea of creating a means by which toys could be borrowed at libraries, played with, and returned so other children could enjoy them, just as they do with books. Take Out Toys was born.

Kardash has created a project involving other local artisans and children to help in the first phase of the program, which is creating puzzles. They are constructed from recycled magazines and books that are then glued to plywood panels and cut into freeform pieces, making puzzles.

This enables all sorts of subjects to become puzzles, from history to various cultures or different interests. Some of the puzzles were actually done from drawings made by 3- to 8-year-old children, but the puzzles are for young people of all ages.

Take Out Toys will be part of the summer program at the Millbrook Library designed for children of various ages, called All Together Now. Starting Saturday, July 1, Kardash will meet with children on the lawn at the Millbrook Library from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. There will be a display of images of the puzzles, and children and their parents can choose a puzzle to borrow, take home, solve and then return.

Tables will be available so children can play with the puzzles while at the library. There will also be an easel and blank plywood for those youngsters who want to get creative and join in making the puzzles, using markers and paints. The creation will then be cut into puzzle pieces by Kardash, and it will be available on the next Saturday.

Take Out Toys is self-funded by local artisans; after the summer program ends, the puzzles will become part of the library’s permanent collection.

His love for children has led this Armenian artist, author and sculptor — who has had an installation in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and whose sculptures have been captured by photographers from around the world — to want to share his love of art and creativity with the area’s children this summer. He hopes the idea of Take Out Toys will become a project that will entice other libraries as well.

To learn more about Millbrook Library programs or to register for a particular program, go to millbrooklibrary.org or call 845-677-3611.

Kardash in the building that houses may of his toys, deep in the woods of Stanfordville. This summer he will be at the Millbrook Library, helping children create puzzles of their own and encouraging them to take puzzles out of the library on loan, much as they do with books. Photo by Judith O’Hara Balfe

From left, Kardash with Helen Hamada, showing some of the puzzles being created for Take Out Toys, which is set to begin on Saturday, July 1, at Millbrook Library. Photo by Judith O’Hara Balfe

  
Kardash in the building that houses may of his toys, deep in the woods of Stanfordville. This summer he will be at the Millbrook Library, helping children create puzzles of their own and encouraging them to take puzzles out of the library on loan, much as they do with books. Photo by Judith O’Hara Balfe

Latest News

Juneteenth and Mumbet’s legacy

Juneteenth and Mumbet’s legacy

Sheffield resident, singer Wanda Houston will play Mumbet in "1781" on June 19 at 7 p.m. at The Center on Main, Falls Village.

Jeffery Serratt

In August of 1781, after spending thirty years as an enslaved woman in the household of Colonel John Ashley in Sheffield, Massachusetts, Elizabeth Freeman, also known as Mumbet, was the first enslaved person to sue for her freedom in court. At the time of her trial there were 5,000 enslaved people in the state. MumBet’s legal victory set a precedent for the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts in 1790, the first in the nation. She took the name Elizabeth Freeman.

Local playwrights Lonnie Carter and Linda Rossi will tell her story in a staged reading of “1781” to celebrate Juneteenth, ay 7 p.m. at The Center on Main in Falls Village, Connecticut.Singer Wanda Houston will play MumBet, joined by actors Chantell McCulloch, Tarik Shah, Kim Canning, Sherie Berk, Howard Platt, Gloria Parker and Ruby Cameron Miller. Musical composer Donald Sosin added, “MumBet is an American hero whose story deserves to be known much more widely.”

Keep ReadingShow less
history

A sweet collaboration with students in Torrington

A sweet collaboration with students in Torrington

The new mural painted by students at Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut.

Photo by Kristy Barto, owner of The Nutmeg Fudge Company

Thanks to a unique collaboration between The Nutmeg Fudge Company, local artist Gerald Incandela, and Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut a mural — designed and painted entirely by students — now graces the interior of the fudge company.

The Nutmeg Fudge Company owner Kristy Barto was looking to brighten her party space with a mural that celebrated both old and new Torrington. She worked with school board member Susan Cook and Incandela to reach out to the Academy’s art teacher, Rachael Martinelli.

Keep ReadingShow less
community

In the company of artists

In the company of artists

Curator Henry Klimowicz, left, with artists Brigitta Varadi and Amy Podmore at The Re Institute

Aida Laleian

For anyone who wants a deeper glimpse into how art comes about, an on-site artist talk is a rich experience worth the trip.On Saturday, June 14, Henry Klimowicz’s cavernous Re Institute — a vast, converted 1960’s barn north of Millerton — hosted Amy Podmore and Brigitta Varadi, who elucidated their process to a small but engaged crowd amid the installation of sculptures and two remarkable videos.

Though they were all there at different times, a common thread among Klimowicz, Podmore and Varadi is their experience of New Hampshire’s famed MacDowell Colony. The silence, the safety of being able to walk in the woods at night, and the camaraderie of other working artists are precious goads to hardworking creativity. For his part, for fifteen years, Klimowicz has promoted community among thousands of participating artists, in the hope that the pairs or groups he shows together will always be linked. “To be an artist,” he stressed, “is to be among other artists.”

Keep ReadingShow less
exhibit