The Craft

Every ridge, window, and rooftop swirl on a Doughinloft piece is piped by hand — no molds, no shortcuts, no two batches landing exactly the same.

A house starts as a flat slab of dough-colored clay, cut and shaped on the oak table. Windows are scored in by hand. The piping bag does the rest, one ridge at a time, until the roofline takes shape.

Then it rests. Overnight, sometimes longer, while the clay firms and the piping sets. Only then does it get dusted, wrapped in kraft paper and glassine, and tied with twine for the trip out of the loft.

It's slow. It's meant to be. Today's batch is small — usually just a few houses, a handful of ornaments — because piping by hand only goes so fast, and we're not in a hurry to change that.