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Home of adorable Dora doorstops and much more!
1991 was the year Angela, the founder of Dora Designs returned from the United States after years of studying. She attempted to settle into a variety of jobs, but her heart just wasn’t in it. She wanted to find something that she could home her skills on and create a business with the hope to follow in the footsteps of the rest of her entrepreneurial family.
During her time in the States she had been fascinated by the home crafts market and spent a lot of her time sewing. On returning to her family home she noticed how the doors were kept open with anything from piles of magazines to large brass objects which provided her with the eureka moment she desired and so began the creation of fabric Dora doorstops based on animal characters.
Her family were all very supportive in her early stages of setting up the business, in particular her mother who was very good with words and created names for all the products one of which was Dora Mouse. This then gave the inspiration for the companies first name of Dora Mouse and Company however the company is fondly known as Dora Designs today.
Initially the products were made on her parent’s kitchen table and then packed up in a little blue van and taken to craft fairs around the country. The products were an instant success and as the popularity increased Angela moved into the wholesale market. The first tradeshow was extremely busy, Angela soon realised that she had created something very special. Some of the first customers from that trade show are still customers today including John Lewis.
With the increase in demand and higher volumes Angela sourced a factory in China with all the right credentials. This factory still supplies us today and we have been very privileged to have such an excellent supplier whose attention to detail and quality are second to none.
We have been producing doorstops, draught excluders, paperweights and key rings for over 30 years now and have always maintained our family values. Mark (Angela’s husband) joined the company in 2005 and the company is now based in the beautiful, historical town of Stamford.
The popularity of the products is Worldwide, and the Dora Designs continues to grow. Our products are still all designed by Angela who puts a great deal of love, care and pride into creating the wonderful collection of products available to buy today. With plenty more ideas up her sleeve, Angela is always raring to get to work on next season, experimenting with new designs and fabrics along the way.
Our lovely new website is an exciting venture for Dora Designs, which we believe is a great way to reach out to our wonderful customers, current and new. We also hope to create brand awareness which in turn will also support those loyal retail customers of ours who have faithfully promoted this brand for years and years.
We hope you enjoy looking through the website and always look out for the new additions. We are always open to requests so please do not hesitate to Dora Designs.
Very best wishes
Mark and Angela
Directors of Dora Designs Limited
