The After Party

News

It has been nearly two months since we officially launched Dog & Dome. The time has shot past in a flurry of online orders, Instagram posts and lethargic summer days, finding shady cafés to work in.

To me, Dog & Dome is a little like having cats or a multitude of guinea pigs. It is something that is constantly present, needs worrying about, feeding, giving attention to, but as a result you get excitement and love out of it. Even though I am constantly thinking about the business, I have never felt more free. As my boyfriend slogs off to work every morning at the same time, my first thought is, where is my office going to be today? It is such a liberating feeling to know that I am my own boss.

Flora Woodruff with Dog & Dome products

Before we started the business, a lot of people asked how I was going to cope with working with my Mother and I simply replied “very easily”. Catriona and I are incredibly close and even though there is 30 years between us, our family all talk about us being more like sisters than Mother and Daughter. We dress the same, have the same mannerisms and like the same things. We have even talked about wearing our matching clothes at Dog & Dome fairs but maybe that is taking it a step too far? The one thing that does differ between us is our skill sets and having different skills makes us the perfect business partners.

Artist Catriona Hall with Dog & Dome mugs

Catriona has been amazingly prolific this year, painting enough animals and birds that she would fill at least two arcs for Noah. When Catriona finishes a picture for Dog & Dome, she will then send me a high resolution image and I will set about cutting it out in Photoshop. Then I decide on a backdrop, border and patterns which I create in Illustrator onto a template for the product that it is destined to become. It is such a fun process and Catriona and I constantly go back and forth with ideas about the placing of tail feathers or the angle of a horse’s head, so that we come up with a product that encompasses both our ideas. As our personalities are so similar, we find we want the same things, however we need each other to create it.

Dog & Dome plates

As we go into Autumn, we are starting to think of our new range which will consist of bowls, plates, wrapping paper and notebooks. We are also being featured in several magazines, which we are hoping will get the word out about us as well as taking part in two fairs: Pop-Up of the North in Malton, North Yorkshire (26th to 28th September) and the Country Living Christmas Fair in Harrogate (5th to 8th December). Thank you to everyone who has purchased our products and shown immense support over the past couple of months. It means a lot to both Catriona and me.

 


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  • Flora Woodruff on

    Thank you so much for your kind words and for your orders! I do hope you enjoy using our products. It’s so lovely to have the support of our family and friends.

  • Rachael Demery on

    Love this blog! So full of energy :) You guys have done an amazing job setting up up Dog and Dome, and creating really cool original products. Can’t wait to see what else I can buy hehe…

  • Angela Murray on

    What a fabulous first blog. Beautiful paintings and great ideas for future products. I’ll look forward to them.


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