“Fuzzy-Felt”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

Fuzzy-Felt is a simple fabric toy intended for young children, first sold in 1950. The toys consist of a flocked backing board onto which a number of felt shapes are placed to create different pictures. Felt pieces can be simple silhouettes or more detailed printed shapes. For a farmyard scene, for example, auxiliary pieces would typically be cows, sheep, chickens, horses, cats, dogs, a farmer, and a tractor. Other scenes might include hospital, pets, vehicles. Fuzzy-Felt is for children over the age of three years, as the pieces may present a choking hazard.

History

Fuzzy-Felt was invented by Lois Allan (d. Farnham Common 1989) during World War II. Born Lois Day, she was an American.^[1] She studied art and fashion in Paris in the 1920s.^[2]^[1] She married an Englishman, Peter Allan, and moved to Farnham Common in Buckinghamshire in the United Kingdom, where the couple ran a travel agency. During the Second World War, Peter Allan joined the Royal Air Force. Meanwhile, Lois Allan contributed to the war effort by manufacturing felt gaskets for sealing components in tanks in the outbuildings of her home. Other women were involved in this work, and Allan ran a creche for their children.^[1] She was inspired to create the toy after observing how much enjoyment children had taking the discarded and misshaped pieces of felt and sticking them to the backs of table mats.^[3]^[1] Product development following the end of the War took a few years, but after gaining the interest of toy buyers at John Lewis and Heals, Allan was able to bring Fuzzy-Felt to market in 1950, later founding Allan Industries Ltd.^[1]

Production continued at Allan's home until 1972, when the business relocated to larger premises in High Wycombe. In 2009 the business was bought by John Adams Leisure Ltd.,^[1] and production moved to Lymington in Hampshire.^[4]

As of 2016, an estimated 26.25 million sets of Fuzzy-felt had been sold internationally.^[1] Although Fuzzy-Felt reached its peak in popularity sometime in the mid-1970s, it remains an iconic children's toy, still enjoyed by children who play with it and parents who nostalgically purchase it.{{Citation needed|date=February 2014}}

Popularity

Many reasons have been attributed to Fuzzy-Felt’s popularity. Though seemingly simple, the various available themed sets allow for hours of creativity. Though the sets started out strictly as a collection of various coloured shapes, countless themes Fuzzy-Felt sets became available through the years. “Ballet, Farmyard, Circus, Hospital, and much later on Thomas the Tank Engine, Noddy, and My Little Pony were released to inspire [a child’s] picture-making” abilities.^[11]

Fuzzy-Felt was also a favoured toy in Sunday schools because of its “Bible Stories set, complete with camels and three kings.”^[11]

The quiet toy was, and still is, fairly cheap, can be played almost anywhere leaving little mess, save a few stray pieces of shaped felt behind, making it a popular choice among parents.^[5]

In popular culture

Fashion

In 2008, fashion designer Stella McCartney used a “ 7-meter high, 14-meter wide” Fuzzy-Felt backdrop, created by artists Jake and Dinos Chapman, as a visual accent for the debut of her 2008 spring/summer collection in Paris. The backdrop was made up of “rainbow-coloured rabbits, giraffes and a particularly anxious ladybird”, all reminiscent of the 1970s child’s toy.^[6]

Literature

In Jeanette Winterson's novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, the protagonist Jeanette uses Fuzzy-Felt to depict Bible scenes, one of which is a rewrite of Daniel in the lions' den. She depicts Daniel as getting eaten by the lions, and when confronted by the pastor tries to disguise this by saying that she 'wanted to do Jonah and the whale, but they don't do whales in Fuzzy-Felt'. The pastor then tells Jeanette that they should do the Astonishment at Dawn scene, and Jeanette remarks to herself that this is 'hopeless... Susan Green was sick on the tableau of the three Wise Men at Christmas, and you only get three kings to box'.

Music

Fuzzy-Felt Folk is a collection of “rare, delightful folk oddities for strange adults and maybe their children too… The front cover imagery of the album is from the original 1968 Fuzzy-Felt Fantasy set.”^[7]

Current

Fuzzy-Felt is sold by Toy Brokers Limited of Huntingdon. There is a UK registered trade mark (number 2461883) for "Fuzzy-Felt", registered to a non-trading UK company (number 03227732) "Fuzzy-Felt Ltd". April 2014: "Toy Brokers are now part of John Adams".

See also

References

1. ^¹²³⁴⁵⁶Kathy Martin, Famous Brand Names and Their Origins (Barnsley: Pen & Sword History, 2016), p. 137; {{ISBN|9781781590157}}.
2. ^Susan Brewer, Collecting Classic Girls' Toys (Barnsley: Remember When, 2010), p. 257 {{ISBN|9781844680689}}.
3. ^{{cite web|author=Leo Benedictus |url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/aug/29/fuzzy-felt-60 |title=Fuzzy-Felt is 60. Celebrate! | Life and style |publisher=The Guardian |date= |accessdate=2014-02-06}}
4. ^Susan Brewer, Collecting Classic Girls' Toys (Barnsley: Remember When, 2010), p. 257 {{ISBN|9781844680689}}.
5. ^¹²{{cite web|url=http://www.doyouremember.co.uk/memory.php?memID=4031 |title=Fuzzy-Felt > Toys |publisher=DoYouRemember.co.uk |date=2007-05-10 |accessdate=2014-02-05}}
6. ^{{cite web|last=Frankel |first=Susannah |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/news/stellas-very-grownup-collection-949707.html |title=Stella's very grown-up collection - News - Fashion |publisher=The Independent |date=2008-10-03 |accessdate=2014-02-06}}
7. ^{{cite web|url=http://www.trunkrecords.com/turntable/fuzzy_felt.shtml |title=Fuzzy-Felt Folk |publisher=Trunkrecords.com |date= |accessdate=2014-02-05}}