About

Hello there, we are Sharron, Peter, Matthew, Viola and Julia and we run the Dor and Tan Studio. The story of Dor and Tan begins with a desire to break away from the disposability of modern life, to create objects with a more personal connection. We want our items to become cherished memories, that favourite cup you always pick when boiling the kettle, the soup bowl you reach for after being caught in the rain. We want to bring handcrafted items to people, that have a unique soft character which cannot be created any other way than by the hand of a maker.

The process of making is slow and thoughtful, taking care to choose the proper way over the easier way. Each object is made by hand from clay sourced locally and fired using green energy. These traditional processes make every piece unique, no two objects will be identical, sisters not twins.

When we are designing new items, we first bring them into our home. We put them on our shelves and use them in our daily rituals. We wear them in, and see how tactile and functional they are. To see which colours, forms, and textures we subconsciously migrate to time and time again. These items we bring into the studio to refine and develop into what eventually makes it onto our store.

Our first two studios were by the sea which put us on the front lines of what plastics and waste are doing to the environment. It’s hard to stay quiet and not express your ambition to change this when you could see it happening all around you. Our studio has helped with beach cleans in the past and we have been a part of Surfers Against Sewages Ocean Network since 2017 (previously called 250 Club). With this environmental charity membership we donate a percentage of our profits each year to help keep our oceans and beaches clean and protected.

To get to the root of the problem though we need to look at how we create and consume as a society. This is where a significant amount of our eco-conscious ethos comes from.