The pieces were inspired by the work of both Charles Eames and Deru leather animal sculptures from the 1960's. Each sculpture is made from a single piece of felt that has been cut, carved, or scored to enable the folding operations to create the animal. This is both study and a demonstration of technique as designer - generating recognizable forms through coordinated operations to show craft and ability.
Like in the the Deru sculptures where the leather inherit rigidity and flexibility play a large roll in the resulting form, these pieces also reflect those constraints. Current folding simulation for this type of work is complex and also not reliable for the given materials, so this study represents the craft and experimentation for form the material while attempting to imbue it with a soul.
This collection was ultimately used as the 2022 give aways for Turf Design. They were generally themed around safari's but for winter polar bears were created and an additional snow globe element was created.
