We have a hard time resisting the charm of these carved wooden animals. Designed by some of today's leading creatives (as well as some great masters from the past), the little creatures offer a moment of joy and humour and are the perfect addition to enliven a bookcase or home office desk. Whether you’re a dog person or prefer wilder fauna, choose yours, or start a collection.
Wooden animals: collect them all
Wooden Animals by Floris Hovers for Ikonic Toys
Dutch designer Floris Hovers is perhaps best known for his ‘duotone’ stylised wooden cars, vans and trucks, but his collection of wooden animals offers a new expressive point of view on minimalist design. Available in a natural beechwood or as a more realistic painted set, the collection features square elephants, a drinking giraffe, a flat ridged crocodile, a triangular bird and more.
‘Lundi’ wooden puffin by Sigurjon Palsson, from Epal
Sigurjón Pálsson has created many designs inspired by Icelandic fauna, from sheeps to shorebirds (below). His wooden puffin for Reykjavik department store Epal is perhaps the most expressive in his oeuvre, featuring a magnetic head that attaches to the body to change its orientation as desired.
Norppa Rocking Toy by Studiomama for Vaarnii
Studiomama’s minimalist Norppa rocking seal for Finnish design brand Vaarnii is sculptural and joyful. The rocking toy is a progression of designers Jack Mama and Nina Thulstrup’s exploration of wooden animals, which they have been assembling in their workshop in East London from scraps of wood and found parts. Like all of Vaarnii’s pieces, the stylised seal silhouette is rendered in pine, the wood grain mimicking the animal’s skin, and the piece raises awareness of the endangered seal species.
vaarnii.com
Available from Finnish Design Shop
‘Isbjørn’ wooden polar bear by Arne Tjomsland, from Eikund
Designer Morten Hippe joined forces with furniture maker Frode Tingbø and a mutual friend, former professional footballer Jørgen Tengesdal, to set up Eikund to bring classic mid-20th century Norwegian designs back to life, or, as Hippe himself puts it, ‘to highlight the geniality of Norway’s long-lost design history for the world to see’. Alongside their furniture production is ‘Isbjørn’, a wooden polar bear by Arne Tjomsland created in 1955, its stylised form as simple as it is expressive. In the 1940s and 1950s, Tjomsland worked in advertising and as a designer for the Kon-Tiki Museum in Oslo, before setting up his own carving workshop at home. The bear is the first piece of many he created, inspired by his time at the museum as a child.
Available from eiklund.com via springcopenhagen.com
16 Animali Puzzle by Enzo Mari for Danese
In the late 1950s, Enzo Mari met entrepreneur Bruno Danese, whose eponymous brand's mission was to bring art into everyday life. With Danese, Mari created one of his best-known and loved pieces, the ‘16 Animali’ wooden puzzle. From a single piece of oak wood, Mari designed 16 animals through one continuous cut, an object that was inspired by his research into Scandinavian children’s toys, and his own children. Each animal is designed as an object of its own, also fitting neatly within a minimalist puzzle structure: an exercise in formal creativity.
The Koala Kit by Torafu Architects for Ishinomaki Laboratory
Ishinomaki Laboratory was founded by Keiji Ashizawa and Takahiro Chiba as a workshop for people devastated by the 2011 tsunami in Japan. Described by its founders as a DIY furniture company, the brand's furniture production is based on essential constructions featuring straight boards of wood. Among its furniture and accessories' production is a series of smaller objects, called 'Kits', that people can assemble and customise at home: these include wooden elephants, koalas, birds and penguins by Torafu Architects, the simplicity of composition enhancing the creatures' expressiveness.
ishinomaki-lab.org
Available in Japan at kobo-shop.net and in Australia at kikiva.com.au
‘Oscar’ Dog by Hans Bølling for Architectmade
Wooden animal figurines are nonagenarian designer Hans Bølling’s best-known creations: they include Oscar, an affable, droopy-eared dog designed in 1953, and an elegant duck with its squat little duckling from 1957, initially crafted as gifts for his wife and their two children. The creatures are now produced by Danish brand Architectmade, which boasts a collection of wooden animals including Bølling’s designs as well as pandas by Bjarke Ingels and owls by Paul Anker Hansen.
Shorebirds by Sigurjón Pálsson for Normann Copenhagen
Inspired by the ubiquitous Icelandic Shorebird, designer Sigurjón Pálsson's collection for Normann Copenhagen is infused with character and minimalism. Turned from solid oak, the birds' silhouette is caught in action and expressively respects the animal's proportions while being essential in its form. The wooden birds are available in natural oak and in a series of colours including white, black yellow, blue, pink and green.
'Amaranth' ducks by Lars Beller Fjetland for Bottega Ghianda
Originally commissioned by Wallpaper* for our final Handmade exhibition in 2019, these beautifully crafted ducks were inspired by the Korean tradition of gifting newlyweds a pair of wooden waterbirds to symbolise their nuptials. With the help of the Bottega Ghianda craftsmen, Lars Beller Fjetland has carved, shaped and polished his own flock of (featherless) friends, creating a design that has more to it than first meets the eye. Each features a secret compartment for concealing a single wooden ring. While one duck is made from maple, two have been produced from amaranth – a species of wood also known as purpleheart, which gradually changes colour with the passing of time.
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A new Oxford Street pop-up celebrates IKEA's blue bagsIKEA's iconic blue bag gets its own pop-up concept store, the 'Hus of Frakta'.
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Audemars Piguet and Kaws have created the Royal Oak Concept watch we didn't know we neededThe Audemars Piguet x Kaws Royal Oak Concept Tourbillon 'Companion' is slick wrist-worn art
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A friendly rivalry coloured by kinship: Wendy Maruyama and Tom Loeser on their two-artist show'I wanted to make furniture, just not traditional furniture, but weird furniture,' says Wendy Maruyama on ‘Colorama’, a two-artist show presented at design gallery Superhouse (until 11 January 2025)
