Sensory toys designed for your shelves, and nobody else's.
We're WooBeWee. For six years we've designed educational sensory toys — first in wood, now mostly for 3D printers — and around 200,000 of them have found their way to children through our own shop, naturebasedtoys.com. If you'd like a piece that is yours alone, we would love to draw it for you.
designing educational sensory toys, in wood and in print
pieces sold through our own shop, naturebasedtoys.com
to make sensory toys using layer colour changes
drawn, printed and tested by the two of us
This is the kind of thing we make
Every one of these is a WooBeWee™ design, drawn here and printed here before it ever went on sale. Yours would not look like any of them — that is rather the point — but it would be made with the same care.
There is a good deal more
The full range is in our shop — worth a look before you write to us, it makes the first conversation much easier.
Visit the shopWhy we would rather draw you something new
We are asked for a commercial licence most weeks, and we understand exactly why. We usually say no — and we think the reason is good news for you.
The first reason is quality. Our shop designs were drawn for one family and one printer at home. Printed and sold at scale, our name would travel with pieces we have never seen, off machines we cannot check. We would only find out something was wrong when a child was already holding it.
The second reason is you. When ten shops buy the same file, ten shops sell the same toy, and none of them has anything the others don't. We have watched that happen to shops we like. Printers are inexpensive now; a design that is genuinely yours is the part that is still hard to come by.
So instead of selling you something we already made, we draw you something new: yours, printed and tested here before it ever reaches you, and not sold to anyone else for as long as we work together.
Three kinds of commission
Most projects turn out to be a mixture of these, and the first conversation is usually about working out which mixture.
A piece of your own
From a sketch, a photo, or just a sentence, to a finished toy — drawn, printed here, and adjusted until it comes off an ordinary desktop printer without a fight.
Personalised pieces
Names, letters, numbers, dates. A whole class or a whole alphabet gets written, sized and packed onto print plates in one go, so thirty pieces are one print, not thirty jobs.
Colour, ready to print
Multi-colour pieces that come off the bed finished — no painting, no gluing, no assembly. Open the file, load the spools we list for you, press print.
From your first message to files on your printer
Tell us
What the piece is, who it is for, and roughly how many you expect to sell in a year. A few sentences is plenty to start.
We send a quote
What it would take, what it costs, and how long. In writing, and nothing begins until you are happy with it.
Drawn and test printed
We print it here and send you photographs of the real thing. Changes at this stage are expected — please do ask for them.
Files in your hands
Print-ready project files, the filament map, and a written licence that says plainly what you may do with them.
Two parts, both agreed before anything is drawn
No per-sale royalties to count, report or argue about — we tried that, and it is no fun for either side.
A design fee
This covers the drawing, the test prints and the revisions, right up until the piece comes off your printer the way it comes off ours. We quote it once we know what we are making.
An exclusivity subscription
This keeps the design yours and off everyone else's shelves, and keeps us on hand for new sizes, new colourways and small changes as the piece finds its audience.
If you would rather not handle print files at all
We can run the whole thing through our own system instead: your customer chooses their colours on your shop, the order arrives with us already set up to print, and we settle up directly with you. It is entirely optional — just mention it in your message if it sounds useful.
Mostly small companies who want something that is theirs
Tell us what you have in mind
One of us reads every message and answers personally — usually within a couple of working days. There is no wrong way to start; even a rough idea is enough for us to be useful.