Gabriel Makinde
Work

01.
02.
03.
04.
05.   Sandbox
Totem
Jewlery
FMR
Holograms Info

Contact
December 2025        

Sandbox, altar for play



Materials
Baltic Birch, Steel, Bronze, Textile, Sand

Dimensions 12 x 4.5 x 4.5 inches      
Description        
 Totem is a modular lamp with three interchangeable configurations.        
Sandbox, altar for play. 2026. Photographed by Laurence Ania Mondesir.

Concept 

The sandbox A steel box containing sand, set within the table and decorated with bronze castings, presents a careful composition. Its arrangement suggests traces of handling: any further movement would disturb the sand’s pattern and call for repair. 

This piece becomes a study of habits — what we allow ourselves to disrupt, and how we place things back where they feel right.  
 “It’ll be so messy”.  Yeah, get messy!

“Who’s gona clean it up?”  I keep a specific arrangement of decorative items on my coffee tables that bring a sense of feng shui to an otherwise mundane hunk of wood sitting amidst my living room. These objects move around depending on how much table space I need momentarily, or when I feel they’ve held the same spot for too long. 

With this project, I wanted to incorporate the joy of moving things around into the table’s function, inviting the user to share that experience.

Development 
Iteration

The model evolved through 3 main iterations that tested proportions, materials, and assembly methods.

Version 1


This model would have a rectangular wooden top section sitting on a foot with similar shape but smaller in scale. 

The top section contains inset lattice panels around it’s 4 sides, and a top compartment to hold sand. This compartment would be covered by a lid with a matching lattice. The table would feature seamless miltered joinery glued all around.
Version 2


This model would discard the lattices as well as the lid, instead using wodden pannels layered with fabric to create contrast between the insets and the rest of the table. 

The sides of both sections would be use finger joints, and the top and bottom pannels of the top section would be glued to sides.
Version 3


With design for dissasembly in mind, this final model would return to miltered joinery.

The top panel of the upper section is glued to the sides, while the bottom panel is glued to the foot. The table is designed in two main parts, with the bottom panel screwed to the sides from below. 

This approach makes transportation easier and allows the user to access the interior in a single step, should any issues arise with the fabric or inset panels.


Bronze Artifacts The bronze artifacts in the sand pit are shaped by hand and meant to be experienced through touch. When handled, fingers trace the bumps and grooves of the bronze much like I did while forming their molds. The models were made of soft brown wax, rolled in the palm, squeezed, pressed, pinched. Their proportions follow feeling in an effort to preserve a sense of naïveté.

After experimenting with different hand techniques, I set out to create the objects following the movements I documented as reliable.




Orb
Smooth, rounded, spherical.

Roll wax into ball until a smooth shape is formed. Clod

Compacted, solid, rounded but dull.

Create flat faces by pressing thumbs down across different areas. Burl

Rounded, knobby, swelling, lumpy.

Pinch large areas of wax all around ball to create protrusions. Rub around them to smoothen out wax. Core

Central, solid, mass.

Pinch wax across different areas, then press down to create flat faces. Wipe thumbs around face, resulting in cylindric protrusions. Create triangles around cylinders using fingernails.

Gnarl

Twisted, knotty, protruding.

Pinch wax across different areas, then press down to create a flat face. Wipe thumbs around face, resulting in a cylindric protrusion. Pinch smaller amounts of wax between protrusions to create nipples. Create path around nipples and cylinders using nails. Mope Stone

Droopy, sulking, sagging.

Create three wax balls of varying sizes. Squeeze them into disks and stack. Play around with thumb pressure to sag wax downwards. Carve out cavity at the highest point of the shape, and use incense stick to create bore.

Brute

Raw, unrefined, forceful.

Use thumbs, fingernails and flat tools to model shape.

Rake

Tool, long-handled, ancient, toothed.

Palm roll wax into one long, one short and 2 shorter tubes. Stick two shorter tubes to the bent short tube creating a fork head. Stick onto long tube. Create handle by rolling wax and creating nipples with the fingernail/pinch technique.
Exploded View


Credits


Sandbox
Concept
Industrial Design
3D Modeling
Fabrication
Finishing
Documentation
Photo Post-Processing

Photography  






Gabriel Makinde

Laurence Ania Mondesir