The word Cradle comes from the old English “cradol” and it describes the place in which something is nurtured or protected in the earlier period of existence.
The cradle is the first vessel that holds a newborn. It’s a symbol of care and nurturing. It is meant to protect, to hold and to gently rock a baby through its first few months.
Is it fitting that this important piece of furniture be made in polluting factories using exploited labour and materials from questionable and unsustainable sources and then shipped across the ocean to be sold in discount retail outlets?
In the new manufacturing economy, the design for this cradle would be downloaded through the Internet to a local manufacturer who would cut it from one sheet of plywood in one operation on a CNC router. Since the manufacturing operation is so simple and since there is no hardware and no complex instructions that have to be supplied with the cradle, no special skills need to be learned by the manufacturer. This cradle is meant to be finished with a hard wax or natural oil finish or left uncoated.
It can be stored or transported flat and once assembled it locks into position naturally without the use of any hardware.
This design follows the Guidelines of the Juvenile Product Manufacturers Association and meets or exceeds the standard for Basinets and Cradles - ASTM F2194. It was developed to be safe, aesthetically pleasing, sustainable in its use of materials and cost-effective in its manufacturing.