Factory Tours
Doty Chou Objects
In a studio in Long Island City, Dorothy Chou is challenging expectations—of materials, of gender roles in design, and of what it means to manufacture in New York City. As the founder of Doty Chou Objects, Dorothy transforms concrete—an industrial, often overlooked material—into delicate, architectural jewelry that tells a story of culture, place, and personal identity.
Dorothy’s journey to founding Doty Chou Objects is rooted in both technical expertise and artistic intuition. Born and raised in Taiwan, she came to the U.S. to study at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, earning a master’s degree in architecture. After moving to New York, she worked in the interior architecture industry, helping bring to life retail spaces for brands like Balenciaga, Lululemon, and Victoria’s Secret. “I’ve been in New York for 10 years,” she says. “After I graduated, I worked in the interior architecture industry for more than five years. I was coordinating with MEP (Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing) engineers, doing construction drawings, and helping major brands bring their stores to life.”
But as a designer, she was driven by a deeper need to make things with her own hands. “I always have desires to create things and make things,” she explains. “Every day I saw many, many beautiful architectural materials, like building materials, and I was thinking, what if it can be something else? And as women, we love to be pretty, and we like to dress up. So that’s how I started using concrete to make jewelry.”
That vision—of recontextualizing a heavy, masculine material like concrete into something elegant and personal—became the foundation of Doty Chou Objects. Her jewelry collection combines architectural sensibility with refined craft. Each piece begins as a sketch, modeled digitally using tools like Rhino and SketchUp. The designs are then translated into 3D-printed molds using a photopolymer resin printer that captures the finest details. “After that we have to wash and clean the molds, and then we move to another curing machine, and it gives extra UV light to cure in five minutes and fully make the shape solid,” she explains.
Once cured, the molds are used to create silicone castings, which are then filled with concrete by hand. Dorothy and her assistant refine each piece using both tabletop and handheld routers to achieve the final form. It’s a careful blend of technology and handcraft that gives her jewelry its unique character.
Doty Chou Objects operates as a lean team, with Dorothy currently working alongside one assistant, but she envisions growth on the horizon. “In the future, I want to have five full-time employees—one for marketing, one for sales and operations, and another, creative. Of course, I’m the founder,” she says with a smile.
The brand’s growing popularity has been fueled by a mix of direct engagement and strategic placement. Dorothy has showcased her work at community-centered events like Taiwan Fest and Japan Fest, while also expanding into wholesale. “Last year, we started to offer wholesale to boutique stores,” she says. “Right now we are in the Clyfford Still Museum gift shop in Denver, and the JuMing Museum in Taiwan as well.”
Her customers tend to be people like her: thoughtful, design-savvy, and culturally curious. “Our customers often have similar backgrounds to me, like design or architecture, or they’re people who appreciate one-of-a-kind products.”
Sustainability is a core value behind the work. By producing small-batch, handmade pieces with in-house equipment and minimal waste, Doty Chou Objects offers an alternative to mass production. “Being a small business owner, it makes me feel like I have more responsibility,” she says. “If we, entrepreneurs, can start having consciousness about sustainability and environmentally friendly methods, it can help us all.”
That flexibility—of being able to prototype and produce ideas quickly—is one of the major advantages of manufacturing locally in New York City. “For example, we have an event next month, and we can just generate an idea, and then we can make it happen very quickly with all our machines and materials in-house.”
At the same time, Dorothy is candid about the challenges: high living costs, economic uncertainty, and global competition. “There are some uncertainties. We don’t know what the future will look like. And the living expenses, the competition from overseas—there’s a lot of costs adding up.”
Still, the benefits of staying rooted in New York far outweigh the difficulties. “New York City brings so many talents here. It is easier to make good connections,” she says. “As a business, we do want to grow. Eventually we cannot do all the things on our own. So our environment will really help us.”
With an array of products that playfully juxtapose masculinity and femininity, from earrings to coasters, Dorothy Chou is proving that concrete—like creativity—can be shaped into something unexpectedly beautiful. Shop her amazing lineup on her website today!