A special collaboration with The School of Life

This year we've been working on some very special Momiji. We were asked by The School of Life to work with them on three Virtue Dolls. Today we're really excited to unveil the fruits of our hard work and reveal Bravery, Kindness and Calm.

The School of Life is a cultural enterprise offering good ideas for everyday life. They offer a variety of programmes and services concerned with how to live wisely and well. The Momiji team have enjoyed their courses, books and beautiful shop in London for several years now so we were delighted to team up.

CALM

Being calm is precious, not only because it feels good – but because it is a basic condition for dealing as effectively as possible with the challenges of every new day. The doll can reassure us: we have been calm and we will be calm again. It is a permanently available monument of the state we seek.

BRAVERY

In a small but important way, the bravery doll reminds us of a courage and fortitude that we believe in theory, but lose our grip on at certain key moments.
With its help, we are reminded to swim against the tide and when things get tough we can turn our eyes to the doll for a glimpse of our own forgotten
strength.

KINDNESS

We rarely deny the importance of kindness in principle. But, under the pressures of daily life, we forget to actually be kind. The doll embodies the warm welcome,the smiling interest and the ready sympathy that lie at the heart of kindness – reminding us to adopt such a demeanour ourselves.

We only have 300 doll available through www.lovemomiji.com. These 300 dolls are all hand-numbered on the base. Non-numbered dolls are available through The School of Life.

We worked with a Momiji veteran designer on this project, Camila De Gregorio. Many of you will remember her dolls, Busted Bunny, Coming Soon and The I Don't Care Bear. Camila now works with Christopher Macaluso and together they are Eggpicnic design. We had a chat with them about working on The School of Life Momiji dolls.

Tell us a bit more about Eggpicnic...

We are a Chilean-Australian design duo based in Sydney, Australia. The goal of our projects has always been to work around cultural identities, projects that are environmentally conscious and creating a bridge to communicate complex, sometimes confronting, socially-conscious ideas and stories. By repositioning themes to consider positive pro-action, we deal with big issues such as genocide, loss of traditional culture, endangered species and education through handmade art-toys, objects and illustrations.


How did you go about creating ideas for the TSOL project?

We began the process for the TSOL project with examining the brief. The brief was clear, create 3 characters based on 3 specific virtues. We got to work brainstorming and developing a range of ideas for each virtue. We initially start each project with illustrations and conceptual ideas of what we want to represent with each character and simplifying it to its simplest form however maintaining a clear understanding of the virtue. Our ideas go through a long process starting with intense research about what we want to express and how. To develop the final collection, it is an arduous adventure constantly refining the forms, the ideas and the concepts of each character.


Which aspect of the project has been the most enjoyable?

The complete process for us is enjoyable, from developing concepts to the end result.
Seeing the final production models and knowing the amount of hard work and effort that has gone into the project is always an uplifting and rewarding experience.


Can you tell us a bit about each character?

Calm is based upon relaxation and meditation. Its form and pose of its hands reflect the concept of concentration and eliminating negative thoughts. It is a character at peace with itself and the world that surrounds it, spreading its positive energy to those that need it.

Bravery is a character which is attempting to push the boundaries of what is possible. While creating this character we were reminded of images of humans first attempts at flight. The homemade wings strapped to their arms, jumping off cliffs. We wanted to reflect this type of courage and bravery, an attempt to jump into the unknown.

Kindness is the all giving, humble character. He carries his own heart ready to hand it over to anyone who needs it. His plump form and sincere facial expression creates an atmosphere of comfort.

Where will your set of Virtue Dolls be living?

In our sunny home studio in Sydney, Australia.