Wooden games pieces of all shapes and sizes. Scrabble, Snakes and Ladders, Ludo and draughts. A dice rolled onto 5. A wooden kiss from a friend. And a tiny train pulling two carriages.

Bamboo bangles, calligraphy brush and clothes pegs. Gourds intricately etched with fabulous tales: Monkey flying through the clouds with his sword, and an ethereal lady poised in front of a mountain.

Practical kitchen items. Some, sadly not so common any more. A butter pat (one of a pair), bamboo tongs, a salt spoon, large multi-purpose wooden spoon, an Indian pastry brush, a Japanese polished spoon, one of a pair of salad servers bought in a flea market, and my child-sized rolling pin from when I was little. 

Wooden buttons and toggles. So many colours, textures, shapes and uses. And a wooden thimble to save fingers from getting pricked.

Wooden animals from my childhood. Some of them given to us as hand-ons from other families. Many made in Camphill Communities by intellectually disabled people, others bought in a Steiner shop in Germany when I was five. Foxes sitting and on the move, a hippo, a chicken, a donkey, two bear cubs, a camel, a rhino, horses, leaping squirrels, pigs and a curly horned ram.

Wooden pencils for colouring and sketching, bamboo paint brushes, an elephant bookmark and a giraffe that belonged to my grandfather that lives on my desk.

Pattern makers. A block for printing Tibetan prayer flags. Smaller block prints from Rajasthan. A rolling pin and square, both carved with birds, flowers, fruit and animals, used for making German Springerle cookies. Two bamboos pierced with a pattern of holes, used for making the elaborate kolam designs outside of South Indian homes (although in reality they’re mostly done precisely by hand). And an old Tibetan press, perhaps for decorating butter torma sculptures.

Prayer beads from India. Carved sandalwood separated with orange knots, rudraksha malas, and polished rosewood-coloured beads.