....can I get truly multi-racial and multi-cultural small figures for my sand tray therapy? I use the sand tray extensively for children, adults, groups and trainees to explore issues in their life and work that are troubling them. I have wild, domestic and farm animals; mythical creatures from many genres; people in their professions and people in their celebrations; there are religious symbols from all creeds as well as symbols of birth, death and loss; there are joyous as well as fearful people, BUT where is the ethnic diversity?
The black brides, grooms, graduates, priests, dancers, and so on, I have to import from US and they are made from a cheap plastic rather than their more robust companions. I have found no Asian or Eastern figures unless I go for styalised finger puppets. There is a set of well made native Americans but they are now discontinued, and have become expensive collectors items.
If we are able to explore diversity in therapy and education, and the crucial area of cultural and racial identity, then we need these tools. Story books and multi-cultural history text books and folk tales and myths are readily available for all age groups. However figures there are none. Maybe I have missed something? In vain have I trawled the Internet, (and for figures who have a disability or a para-olympian or just an elderly person with a white stick!). What is the message underlying this lack?
I'm in Melbourne, Australia. I have been told of capable sculptors who search in vain for ways to make a living from their skills here and I imagine it would be the same there in Britain. I have been doing some realist small scale sculpting but ran out of money and had to get other work. The making of moulds to reproduce figures does not appear to be very difficult; the people selling the silicone rubber for the moulds conduct short training in it here. I'm interested to produce relevant figures for you to peruse but that would be unlikely to be possible for me this year.
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