The overall brief was to create a highly finished, robust children's toy.


The brief I set myself within that was "Visual Sound" - to help children see how music can be formed.

Loosely based upon a miniature music box, the Gyrophone encompasses self-crafted xylophone parts and a rotating barrel with removable pegs. These allow users to re-arrange the pattern and so change the melody.


This toy also comes supplied with a music book with familiar nursery rhymes already transposed for the Gyrophone.

Design Skills:


  1. •Anthropometric Research

  2. •Material Resourcing

  3. •Product Breakdown

  4. •Tensile Testing

  5. •Process Research


Build Skills:


  1. •Coopering

  2. •Jig Fabrication

  3. •Mill / Press / Lathe

  4. •Finishing Processes

  5. •Presentation

The Gyrophone is a children’s musical toy hand-crafted from colourful, tropical hardwoods to contrast the current trend toward plastic and pine toys.