Sandbox, altar for play

Materials Baltic Birch, Steel, Bronze, Textile, Sand, Walnut Oil

Dimensions 44 x 28 x 13.5 in

Description 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 do we allow ourselves to disrupt, and how do we place things back where they feel right?

Sandbox, altar for play. 2026. Photographed by Laurence Ania Mondesir.

Concept

Project context I like to keep a specific arrangement of decorative items atop 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.

Bronze Artifacts The bronze artifacts in the sand pit are shaped by hand and meant to be experienced through touch. 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.

Materials The entire table was built using Baltic Birch, stained with Osmo’s Polyx-Oil and sealed with organic walnut oil. The steel box was made using upcycled steel, darkened and sealed with organic walnut oil.

Development

IterationThe 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 composed of two main parts, with the bottom panel screwed to the sides from below. Inset panels decorate the perimeter, one of which functions as a hidden door mounted on a piano hinge.

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

Orb

Clod

Core

Burl

Mope Stone (Incense holder)

Brute

Rake

Gnarl

Sandbox, 2025

Gabriel Makinde
Concept, Industrial Design, 3D Modeling, Fabrication, Finishing, Documentation,
Photo Post-Processing

Laurence Ania Mondesir
Photography

Totem