Where did the Wobble Bunnies Wobble in From?
Feb 23rd 2023
A few times a year, we have the pleasure of unveiling a wave of new designs, all of which are the result of months of hard work. This past month, among those new designs were the Wobble Chicks, three adorable friends who are here to celebrate spring.
But where did they come from? If you’re familiar with Danforth, you might be wondering how we came to encounter such funny little friends. They’re a far cry from our signature creations like oil lamps!
Well, you may remember that it was about a year ago that the Wobble Bunnies first showed up at Danforth. (We haven't been able to keep chocolate in the office since). So in honor of the newly hatched Chicks, we thought we'd share the story of how the original Wobbles—Clover, Daisy, and Lupine—came to be.
THE MAKING OF THE WOBBLE BUNNIES
In the summer of 2021, the design team was looking ahead to the holiday season, and feeling the urge to try something totally different. Having recently launched the popular Scandi Flowers jewelry, our lead designer, Tim Copeland, had a Scandinavian aesthetic on the brain. And one thing that’s a big part of Scandinavian culture is, of course, gnomes.
We’d also been seeing gnomes around a lot—in gardens, in home décor—and we began to wonder: what would a Danforth gnome be like?
So we drew up some designs, carved up some prototypes, and quickly met Lilla and Gron, two forest gnomes who wasted no time burrowing their way into hearts and homes around the country.
In the process, though, we’d taken turns floating a few other ideas. One that garnered some interest, but didn’t quite make it to production, was a fun, sort of left-of-center idea: Dust Bunnies!
Picture this: cute little bunnies who live under the couch and come out at night to play. Maybe they dissolve into dust during the day! And there are a few—siblings, let’s say—who all have different personalities; maybe one is the playful one, maybe they wear different hats.
Well. The drawings were cute, sure, but the idea didn’t gain any traction with most of the team. So the Dust Bunnies got put back under the couch, while Gron and Lilla forged ahead.
(In case you're wondering, yes, this is a normal part of the overall creative process. There's almost never a shortage of ideas; yet for every 50 ideas that get floated, only one or two make it to production.)
But the idea of bunnies didn’t go away completely. When we got to talking about spring designs, they came up again—just not in the form of dust.
This time, the design team was intrigued by another new element: movement.
We wanted to create something that didn’t just sit still on your coffee table or bookshelf. We wanted it to be interactive, something that invites play and imagination and smiles.
And thus, the Wobble Bunnies were born.
FINDING THE PROPER WOBBLE
Once the initial three designs were conceived and approved, there was another issue to contend with: making sure they wobbled correctly. (Proper wobbling is a very serious issue!)
Each bunny had to be engineered in such a way that it had an appreciable range of motion, but wouldn’t topple over. To do this, Tim collaborated with our research & development team, tweaking the design as needed to give it the appropriate balance and weight distribution.
With many Danforth designs, this is the stage where art meets science. We have to make sure that a product doesn’t use so much pewter that it’s too heavy (for instance, earrings that would be uncomfortable to wear because of their weight), or that the cost is prohibitive. In this case, we needed to make sure that the weight was distributed such that each bunny achieved a proper wobble.
LAST STEPS: GETTING TO KNOW EACH BUNNY
As the Bunnies went to the workshop to be molded, cast, and finished, it was time to look beyond the technical elements and get to know them!
Fortunately, the little creatures are so full of personality that this didn’t take much time.
Lupine loves giving out candy and aspires to be the Easter Bunny someday. That’s why he’s always trying out different flavors of chocolate and practicing his hops.
Daisy, as you can see, loves her naps, so don’t be offended if you see her yawning during Easter brunch.
Clover, of course, is the most adventurous, and can often be found exploring the clover patch or digging around in Lupine’s candy.
These three were so fun, in fact, that we had to invite three more of their friends in to play: Newt, Lucky, and Poppy, the Wobble Chicks! We hope you love them as much as we do.
If you haven't already, you can order your Wobble Bunnies by clicking here, and the Wobble Chicks by clicking here. Or, stop by one of our nine retail stores to see them in person!
