Eames Elephant Wood

The designs and fabrications were made in conjunction with other children s plywood products including the nested chair table and stool.

Eames elephant wood.

A delightful object for adults and children alike the eames elephant 1945 developed out of the eameses fascination with elephants. Despite the 1945 prototypes having a wonderful aesthetic beauty it. The plywood elephant was designed in 1945 as a playful offshoot of their molded plywood experiments. This includes herman miller products finished with wood veneer or recut wood veneer except the oiled eames lounge chair and ottoman with rosewood oiled walnut or oiled santos palisander veneer unless specifically noted.

They designed the original elephant out of molded plywood but fabrication methods proved too complex and it never went into production. After a limited edition in 2007 vitra launched serial production of the eames elephant in wood for the very first time in 2018. One prototype was shown at the museum of modern art in new york in 1946 and still survives in the eames family archives today. However this piece never went into production.

The eames elephant was part of a group of plywood animals designed in 1945 as part of the experiment into the use of the material in collaboration with the evans molded plywood division. Now in 2020 the eames elephant will be 75 years old. Among these initial designs the two part elephant proved to be the most technically challenging due to its tight compound curves and the piece never went into serial production. Charles and ray eames developed a toy elephant made of plywood in 1945.

In the early 1940s charles and ray eames spent several years developing and refining a technique for moulding plywood into three dimensional shapes creating a series of furniture items and sculptures in the process.