Mike, Karen, Luigi and I (Christina) first spent some time in the studio reviewing basic circuitry. We used alligator clips to connect a battery pack to tin foil and some sort of light or sound. Now the question became; what creative way can we make the tin foil connect, particularly in a squeezable fashion? The experimentation began. We ended up with a pile of switches. Air from a foam stuffed balloon pushing the tine foil together, a switch inside of a glove to be squeezed, and several variations of wires or foil touching from between 2 squeezed pads, attached to tongue depressors, inside of straws, etc. The next step was to think about recreating toys by taking them apart and adding new innards. We collected several boxes of mechanical toys from thrift stores, and enthusiastically pulled them open. We pulled the pieces out and separated and identified them, attaching them to battery packs and our switches to see how they worked. This was really fun and the inspiration to morph them into surprising combinations was immediate. I was personally drawn to the funny little stuffed critters that had movement, light and sound capabilities...and if they didn't, they would now! It's exciting to take something cuddly and lovable and transform it into a new creature. Kind of creepy. I took the body of an Easter Bunny that reached out with a basket in her arms, pulled off the basket and detached the arm/chest mechanism, and fit it into a stuffed bunny-like animal that I had gutted. The gutting was hard to do at first, with anything that has a face, I think. But it was so satisfying to see it move with it's new arms and hands! I cut a little hole in each of the legs, strung some wire attached to a tin foil ball through each leg, and made a ball poke out of each hole. This idea was inspired by some of the switches that I had made earlier by touching little conductive balls. So with a battery pack well connected (needs electrical tape, I learned to re-enforce early!) and tucked inside, my little bunny was waving her arms with squeeze of the knees. Mike had a great suggestion to make a sound when the hands touch. Easy enough to copy the same switch in the hands and connect it to the sound device from yet another dissected toy, which I tucked into her tummy. She was a bit saggy in posture, causing the switch to sometimes connect at inappropriate times, so I added some thick armature wire and shaped the bunny into an erect and alert position. Add a couple of red lights coming out of her head and my weird little bunny was complete! Now we have a pile of toys parts separated by function, as well as complete toys waited to be dissected by the people in our upcoming workshop. Sounds, lights, spinning and vibrating devices, fabric, stuffing, and switch making materials are all ready to be inserted into new toys, to serve new purposes.