One of the things I read over holiday break was Norman Brosterman's Inventing Kindergarten, about Frederick Froebel and his philosophies about early learning, which lead to his creation of kindergarten and the "gifts" which were central to it. One of the things it made think about was the centrality of play in leading to understanding, and also about how things (like a wooden block) placed in relationship to other things (like a wooden sphere) elucidates both while also opening possibilities for what one might do with them. Anyway, often I pick up little things when I am out an about, most often wooden things, just because they have great forms, or maybe great color, or just feel good to hold on to--so I thought I might start occasionally listing a group of few little things together as one thing, because they seem especially good together. Here are two--the dark one (a dark blue-gray) I think was maybe a hand-sander, with great color and a flat side worn wonderfully smooth, and the other I have no idea, but very satisfying!

Natural wood form: 4 3/4" t x 2 3/4" d at base. Painted form: 5 5/8" x 3 5/16" x 1 1/2". The bulbous form shows loss around the edges of the base. Sold as a pair.