Growing up in San Francisco — with Marin County, Yosemite, and Lake Tahoe at her back door — shaped Dori's sensibilities. When New York beckoned with a career in fashion design, she followed. Now spending long weekends in an 1890's home in Northeastern Pennsylvania she has shifted her design focus to home decor and the slower, simpler pleasures of the area.

With few closets in the 19th-century house, Dori quickly saw that she wanted a coat rack or hooks in every room. "Take it off, drop it on a hook...take it out, rest it on a hook." In response to her need for order, ease, and beauty she began designing her "hook sculptures."

"I've been very inspired by this coal mining region with its long-gone mines, collieries, rail yards, farms and churches, and I think this shows up in my designs,” Dori notes. She haunts mills for the end cuts, discards and humble 2x4"s that are her basic building blocks, combining them with old metal tool fragments she finds. She sees this two-step process of gathering utilitarian elements and recycling them as beautiful, tactile, useful objects as something of "a dance with the universe. I have a place in its rhythms, and I'm keeping time.” 

Dori’s collection falls into four areas she names Industrial, Sanctuary, Play, and Racks. The Industrial series is her ode to the dignity and craftsmanship of the laborers of the industrial era. She describes the Sanctuary series with a quote from Saul Bellow: "Art has something to do with the achievement of stillness in the midst of chaos, a stillness which characterizes prayer.” The Play series expresses her impulse for fun.  The Racks are compositions with minimal, beautiful proportions. Each sculptural piece functions as a hook or hanger.

Dori's clothing lines have been carried by specialty stores including I. Magnin, Barney's, Henri Bendel, Wilkes Bashford and Bergdorf Goodman.

All pieces are individually made by Dori in her studio in Northeast PA.  Wood is carefully selected for its clearness or its markings; cutting is to custom size, one at a time. All sanding, sealing, keyholes, and affixing of hooks to the bases are done individually. Attention to the quality of the work is unsparing.

Clients can choose individual hooks or racks, or create their own arrangement by mixing and matching from the different lines. Any single piece can be customized into a series. Contact us to discuss. Dori works with residential as well as commercial customers.

Many in the Industrial Series are one of a kind, but the stock is always being replenished with something new and interesting.

All  Hook Sculptures are shipped free of charge in the United States and ship via UPS.