MATERIALS

Nature has always been our starting point.

We choose materials not only for the way they look, but for the way they feel, age and carry the marks of the hands that work with them.

Natural wool, rattan, Peruvian cotton and poplar wood used by DUZZI

Handmade felt toys crafted from New Zealand wool

New Zealand → Nepal

Felt — From New Zealand to Nepal

Before our felt becomes tiny strawberries, croissants, vegetables or birthday cakes, it begins thousands of kilometres away in New Zealand.

New Zealand wool is valued for its softness, strength and natural ability to bind into a dense, durable textile. Wool is also a renewable fibre, growing again after each shearing.

From there, the wool travels to Nepal, where it is transformed by hand using felting techniques practised by skilled artisans. Depending on the design, wet felting and needle felting are combined to create shapes, textures and small details.

Wet felting uses moisture, soap and friction to bind the fibres together. Needle felting uses a specially barbed needle to sculpt and attach finer details one fibre at a time.

The wool used in our felt collection is coloured with AZO-free dyes. Because every piece is shaped and finished by hand, small differences are a natural part of the craft.

Origin: New Zealand → Nepal
Material: 100% New Zealand wool
Technique: Wet felting and needle felting
Dyes: AZO-free

Natural rattan shaped and woven by hand in Vietnam

Handwoven in Vietnam

Rattan — Woven Through Generations

Rattan is often mistaken for wood, but it is something entirely different. It is a climbing palm that grows in tropical regions, particularly throughout Southeast Asia.

Its long stems combine strength with natural flexibility. This makes it possible to shape gentle curves, build lightweight structures and create woven surfaces without losing the material’s durability.

Rattan weaving does not belong to one country alone. Communities across Southeast Asia—including Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam—have developed their own weaving traditions and techniques over generations.

Our rattan collection is made in Vietnam, where the material is shaped, woven and finished by hand. Different parts of a design may use open weaving, closely woven surfaces or structural binding, depending on the function of the piece.

We leave room for the material to look like itself. Small variations in tone, texture and shape are not hidden; they are part of working with a natural vine and making each piece by hand.

Origin: Vietnam
Material: Natural rattan
Craft: Hand shaping and hand weaving
Finish: Water-based matte finish

Natural materials being shaped by hand for DUZZI

Natural materials are never perfectly uniform.
That is part of what makes them worth working with.

DUZZI knitted characters made from Peruvian Tangüis cotton

Knitted in Peru

Peruvian Cotton — Centuries in Every Thread

Cotton has been part of Peru’s textile story for thousands of years. Long before modern textile production, communities in the Andes were already spinning, weaving and creating complex fabrics from natural fibres.

Among Peru’s best-known cotton varieties are Pima and Tangüis. Although both are valued Peruvian fibres, they have different characteristics.

Pima cotton is especially known for its softness, silky feel and extra-long fibres. Tangüis cotton is valued for its strength, resilience and ability to produce yarns that retain their structure while remaining soft to the touch.

Our knitted characters are made from Peruvian Tangüis cotton. The yarn is certified to OEKO-TEX® Standard 100, meaning it has been tested for harmful substances according to the certification’s requirements.

Origin: Peru
Material: Tangüis cotton
Craft: Knitting and hand-finished details
Standard: OEKO-TEX® Standard 100

A DUZZI wooden design being developed in the studio

Designed and made in Israel

Wood — From Sketch to Story

Unlike our other collections, every wooden piece begins in our own studio. It always starts with a pencil.

Each new design begins as a hand-drawn sketch. We explore its proportions, function and the way a child might naturally interact with it before turning the idea into precise measurements.

The design then moves into engineering software, where every joint, opening and structural detail is refined. Only after this stage do we create the first physical prototype.

Most components are precision-cut using laser technology. They then return to the workbench, where the pieces are sanded, assembled, painted and finished by hand.

We work exclusively with poplar plywood. It is lightweight, stable and well suited to precise cutting, while its pale tone and subtle grain create the calm appearance we want for our wooden collection.

The entire collection is made by one craftsman, allowing the same person to follow each piece from the original drawing through to the final inspection.

Origin: Israel
Material: Poplar plywood
Process: Hand sketch → CAD → laser cutting → hand finishing
Finish: Water-based paints and finishes

Why natural materials?

Natural materials fascinated me long before DUZZI existed. During my years in medical research, I studied natural compounds and the ways they interact with the immune system.

Today, that curiosity has taken a different form. Instead of studying nature in a laboratory, we work with materials that come directly from it—wool, rattan, cotton and wood.

We do not choose them because natural materials are a trend. We choose them because each one behaves differently, feels different in the hand and brings something to a design that a synthetic imitation cannot fully reproduce.

They may carry differences in grain, colour, texture or shape. We do not see those differences as faults. They are simply part of allowing the material to remain recognisably itself.

Every DUZZI piece begins with a material.
What follows is shaped by imagination.