Welcome to The Toymaker's Journal

 

 

Hello, and welcome to my workshop.

I’m Sasha, the designer behind The Toymaker's Journal. I'm genuinely glad you've found your way here.

I've been designing wooden toys and decorative pieces for more than thirty-five years. What began as a love of creating things from timber gradually became a lifelong passion for designing projects that spark the imagination. Over the years, I've had the privilege of seeing my work in homes around the world, and it never gets old knowing that something which started as a sketch on my workbench has become part of someone else's story.

The Toymaker's Journal is the next chapter in that journey.

It brings together everything I love: woodworking, storytelling, fantasy and thoughtful design. Every pattern you find here starts as an original idea, carefully worked through until it's something I'd be proud to build in my own workshop. I spend a lot of time refining each design so that the construction feels logical, the instructions are easy to follow, and the finished piece captures the character I imagined from the very beginning.

I'm a firm believer that the best projects tell a story, and make their own, too.

That's why you'll find much more than patterns here. You'll discover enchanted cottages, woodland creatures, dragons, castles, festive villages and curious little characters, each one created to feel like it belongs to a much larger world. As The Toymaker's Journal grows, so will those worlds through articles, tutorials, behind-the-scenes workshop journals, and eventually the books and stories that inspired many of these designs in the first place.

One thing that's important to me is authenticity.

Every pattern is designed by me from the ground up. They're not traced, copied or generated at the push of a button. They're the result of years spent drawing, prototyping, building and refining, with plenty of sawdust along the way. I believe that if I'm asking you to invest your time in making one of my designs, then it's my responsibility to make sure that design has earned its place on your workbench.

Whether you're completely new to woodworking or you've been building for decades, I hope these projects give you the confidence to create something you'll be proud of. There's something deeply satisfying about turning a few pieces of timber into an object that might be displayed at Christmas, passed on to a grandchild, or simply make someone smile every time they walk past it.

Thank you for being here and for supporting independent design. I hope The Toymaker's Journal inspires you to slow down, enjoy the process, and build something that tells a story for years to come.

See you in the workshop,

Sasha la Coven
Designer & Author
The Toymaker's Journal.