Our Story

  • We are Isabel and Decker, an oldest sister/youngest brother duo, who had the idea one morning over Apollo Bagels to rekindle our love for art and creativity.

  • With Decker as the ceramicist, Isabel (me) as the painter, and a shared desire to make tiny treasures for our homes that we couldn’t find anywhere else, we decided to team up and create Daughter Of.

  • Putting a name to our work was a daunting task. We wanted something that would encapsulate our magical vibe, allow us to evolve our art in the future, and create a personal connection for both us and anyone who interacts with our art. After lots of deliberation, the idea of Daughter Of was born, and we knew it was the perfect match.

the Artists  

We are Isabel and Decker, an oldest sister/youngest brother duo, who had the idea one morning over Apollo Bagels to rekindle our love for art and creativity.

Isabel

After years of working in New York, I felt disconnected from the parts of myself that I had treasured so much as a kid. Being artistic and creative (honing skills that are not Excel and PowerPoint). I have found my 20s to be a decade of returning with renewed appreciation to the introverted and teeming inner life of my 12-year-old self. In my art, this has taken the form of painting a whimsical and feminine world of fairies, mermaids, and lucky talismans to dot around my apartment as little reminders to myself that life can be magical, too.

Decker is my younger brother, and we have a dynamic that I love. He is the entertainer of the family, the rebel, and the one who will question everything and think beyond the bounds of the obvious. In one moment, he’s making you laugh at middle school boy humor, and in the next, he’s carrying a deeply spiritual conversation about life and existence. He has always nurtured his creative side, returning repeatedly to the medium of ceramics. Decker’s ceramic style chases a challenge: he loves a crisp corner, a clean edge, a perfectly fitted lid. He is drawn to shapes that defy the nature of clay; objects that look impossibly sharp and neat despite being completely hand-built.

Two young children, a boy and a girl, standing together at an amusement park with a roller coaster in the background. The girl is making a peace sign and smiling, while the boy is standing with his hands on his hips.

Us as kids, not much has changed.

Decker

Clay is a medium I’ve always found my way back to. From working on a wheel in an attic or a boarding school in the mountains of Vermont, to learning under the guidance of various renowned potters, no matter where I’ve been, the pull has always been the same. Clay asks only for imagination, and in return, it offers everything. It is a space where boundaries dissolve, and where ideas slip straight from the mind into the hands.

I’ve always been drawn to mediums without rules, and that freedom is what continues to inspire me. When Isabel told me that she wanted to reconnect with her artistic side and pursue painting, I knew I wanted to create alongside her. For me, the joy lies in making objects that are as satisfying to hold as they are to look at; pieces that invite your fingers to glide across their surfaces, to be held tightly and cherished.

I have been working with clay for over a decade, and while technical skill is vital, what truly makes a piece meaningful is the energy and intention poured into it during its creation. Each piece carries that presence, becoming not just an object but a vessel for feeling, memory, and wonder.

the  Brand 

With Decker as the ceramicist, me as the painter, and a shared desire to make tiny treasures for our homes that we couldn’t find anywhere else, we decided to team up and create Daughter Of.

Early Days

We started to develop pieces together, exploring how our different strengths and styles complemented each other. We learned a lot about what worked and what didn’t, and over time, a combined artistic style started to emerge. One that honored our different approaches and formed them into something new and harmonious.

Not So Early Days

Through lots of trial and error (and so, so many test tiles), we began to hone our techniques and find the materials that gave us results we were truly excited about. As our process and skills evolved, so did our process for conceptualizing our work. We began to think more intentionally about what we wanted to create, and kept coming back to the theme of nostalgic wonder - think exploring in the woods behind a childhood home, building a fairy house at the base of a mushroom-dotted tree, Christmas Eve - a remembered sense that there is an undercurrent of magic, beauty, and luck guiding us through life.

A white ceramic bowl with a decorative scalloped edge, filled with small, rectangular ceramic domino testing tiles with blue and green painted designs, resting on a textured, beige fabric surface.

Just a few of our many test tiles. In all of our testing, only 1 single tile came back with a winning combination of underglaze & glaze, and it’s the formula we use today.

The name

Putting a name to our work was a daunting task. We wanted something that would encapsulate our magical vibe, allow us to evolve our art in the future, and create a personal connection for us and anyone who interacts with our art. After lots of deliberation, the idea of Daughter Of was born, and we knew it was the perfect match.

Practical

With our process, concepts, and style coming together, we were faced with the daunting task of deciding on a name. After lots of mood boarding with our powerhouse middle sister and co-owner of The Rage Group - a personal branding agency - there were two clear themes: the feminine and the magical. But there was also a third element that was harder to pin down, and even harder to translate into a name. It was this sense that the brand needed to be able to evolve, to grow, to change into whatever suited us, without losing an essential cohesiveness. The name paradoxically had to hold the brand together while allowing it to morph into anything.

It bobbed out of reach for a long time before finally drifting to us like a message in a bottle; Daughter Of. It was feminine, deeply personal, and implied creation and inspiration. It was also open-ended, and allowed us to add any theme at the end of it, so that any imagery I wanted to paint or shape Decker wanted to build would still “fit.” Daughter of the Forest, the Summer, the Stars…the possibilities are endless.

Personal

On a personal level, our name resonates with me deeply. Being a daughter is a defining piece of my identity. I am the daughter of my two amazing parents. I’m also a daughter of the woods I grew up playing in, the books I read, the city I live in, and all the other pieces of my world that I choose to make a defining part of my self. I am inspired by and created by all of it.

Being a daughter, and really just a woman in this world, comes with a lot of BS, beauty, and magic (sometimes in that order). We hope our art helps you find a reprieve. For me, it is a talisman that grounds me in the feeling of that nostalgic wonder; it is a reminder of the magic of being a “daughter of” everything that makes me who I am, and that this changes and evolves every day.

Close-up of a Mermaid-themed ceramic box with a blue and white design, featuring a portrait of a Mermaid and the word "Daughter Of".

We’ve had so much fun playing around with adding our name to our ceramics and conceptualizing pieces using the name’s versatility. Pictured here is our first “Daughter Of the Sea” box.