Of course I love the brilliant design work by Ray and Charles Eames…but what I adore even more, is the toys they created.
The Eameses shared a firm belief in the importance of play, stimulating young creativity and the philosophy to “take your pleasure seriously.”
They also explored architectural challenges of structure and materials through toy creation, like the well known Elephant- constructed to experiment with moulding plywood into compound curves.
Pundy, the son of photographer and graphic artist Herbert Matter, testing out the Eames Elephant prototype © Eames Office LLC.
The first toys they designed for mass production, were large and colourful animal masks that began as props used in exhibitions, photographs and theatrical skits with friends.
Colour Photographs: Toy Masks prototypes, 1950 © Eames Office LLC / B&W Photographs by Allan Grant for LIFE Magazine, 1951
These masks are my absolute Eames favourites, so it gave me a little jolt of excitement to discover Roosje van Donselaar’s work for VitraHaus!
Roosje created small editions of unique and handmade clay ‘Facials’, inspired by the original Eames’ Toy Masks.
Special ‘Facials’ for the VitraHaus, ©Roosje van Donselaar
Such wonderful work and a lovely reminder to remain playful and curious!
xez
Playful moments between Ray and Charles Eames, all photographs © Eames Office LLC , click to enlarge.
PS: You can create your own paper Eames Elephant with this template here ♥