Old Green: the homeware brand in harmony with nature

Looking for a greener Christmas gift made in Dorset? Tori Fallesen has combined reclaimed glass drinks bottles with seasonally inspired scented candles to create Old Green, a homeware brand in harmony with nature and kind to the planet.

The designer William Morris would feel right at home in Tori Fallesen’s cosy Dorset studio. Not only is everything both useful and beautiful, it’s also fiercely sustainable, too.

Together with her team at Old Green, she creates drinking glasses, chunky vases and candle domes from the champagne, wine, gin and beer bottles that most of us discard to recycling. She also produces sumptuously scented candles inspired by the seasons.

Tori holding some of the essential oils used in their seasonal candle blends. (Image: Darren Lovell) Then there’s the leftover fabrics that are neatly stacked on metal shelving, used in the creative workshops that are held round the studio’s big table. And the gift tags she and her team have manufactured out of paper created from the mashed-up labels they have patiently washed off the wine bottles.

The determination to creatively re-use as much as possible is palpable in this building located on a little industrial estate near Wimborne. Tori’s maker journey started six years earlier as she sought a mental escape from a stressful job managing a web development company.

‘Though I studied law at university, I’ve always been a creative person but never the traditional route; I’m not very good at drawing or even artistic things,’ she admits.

Olive candle dome made from the upper part of a wine bottle, with a wood base from Keith the carpenter. (Image: Darren Lovell) To gain some life balance and de-stress from her job, Tori decided to take an upholstery class. ‘I fell upon it because I had a chair that needed doing. I couldn’t believe how quickly I became absorbed,’ she says. ‘It was the first time I’d found something in my adult life where I could truly switch my brain off and just be myself and present; not thinking about all the stuff that was going on.’

This lightbulb moment played an important part in what came next. After turning her upholstery into a side hustle, Tori grabbed an offered redundancy with both hands and took a course in furniture painting and started flipping furniture for a living,

‘I loved repurposing old, brown furniture. It made me aware how much people don’t value things these days; things that in the past had taken time and effort to make,’ she says.

Tori (right) with some of the Old Green team packing orders in the studio. (Image: Darren Lovell) This, and the realisation that, in order to make reliable money, she would need to produce something repeatable, collided one day at her temporary job, working in a pub.

‘I was gazing at the bottles, thinking about all the work that went into the design and manufacture of a gin bottle just for one use, and wondering if I could re-purpose them.’

Using online tutorials, Tori spent around a year working out the best way to cut and smooth glass safely. She created small, brown tumblers from beer bottles and elegant vases from the base of Tanqueray gin bottles. She also transformed wine bottle into holders for the candles she had started making.

Winter Edition Candle and tealights with its blend of frankincense, clove, fir needle, and orange aromas. (Image: Darren Lovell) However, the fact that she wasn’t using the top half of the bottles worried her. And so, she started producing bijou tea-light candle domes (from £30) from the upper shoulders of wine bottles, placing them on bases of turned leftover wood, kindly supplied by her workshop neighbour, Keith the carpenter.

Her suppliers include the 5-Star Chewton Glen Hotel on the Hampshire/Dorset border at New Milton, which gladly sends her its used champagne bottles. ‘Their heavy bases make them perfect to use as vases,’ explains Tori.

During this time, she also experimented with candle making, coming up with four blends of scent, representing the seasons. ‘That made the most sense to me,’ she says, about this decision. ‘You probably don’t want anything woody and smoky in spring, or bright, uplifting florals in the middle of winter.’

Amie making tealights in the Old Green studio. (Image: Darren Lovell) She’s since added two more to the collection: a Christmas candle, packed with cinnamon, tangerine, clove and cedarwood scents, and Solace, a lavender-based one, which was developed during lockdown. Candles start from £16 for a small one. ‘I had more time to perfect blends then; you wouldn’t believe how hard it is to get it right.’

Unlike many candles, Tori’s are made from rapeseed wax and natural essential oils. They smell gorgeous, even when they are unlit. This is important to her as the essential oils she uses are believed to have uplifting, soothing or energising effects, depending on which one is being used.

All this perfectly taps into her feeling that along with sustainability and treading lightly on the planet, she also hopes that her products should better connect us to our homes and nature.

Amber glass wear made from beer bottles. (Image: Darren Lovell) ‘My husband’s grandfather is Danish, so we’ve spent family time in Copenhagen. I can definitely see the influence of their culture in what I do,’ she admits. ‘The feeling that things emote is very important to the Danes. Whereas I think we’ve somehow lost that connection to nature and the things we buy for our home.’

Connecting all three is now her life’s work and sustainability – even more important now she is a mother - underpins everything she does.

It appears there is not a minute of the day when her staff; Gemma, who leads studio production, Amie, who looks after community and sales, and Laura, who takes care of workshops and events, are not washing off bottle labels, cutting glass, and sanding the wood supplied by Keith and others for the candle pot lids and dome bases.

Finishing polish to one of their Christmas Edition Candles which features a blend of cedarwood, tangerine, clove, ginger, and cinnamon. (Image: Darren Lovell) Tori delights in finding ever-closer suppliers and cutting down on air and road miles. ‘Keith is a few units down from us on the Longmeadow Industrial Estate; we use botanicals supplied by Brothers Flower Farm in Wimborne and our rapeseed wax comes from plants grown in Lancashire,’ she says. ‘I chose to use natural wax from plants as it doesn’t give off toxins, it doesn’t get shipped in from far afield, like soy, some of which can be involved in deforestation. And rapeseed puts nutrients back into the soil which benefits crop rotation.’

And Tori’s sustainable Dorset business is booming. Old Green products are stocked in around 20 independent stores, including Teals Local Farm Shop near Yeovil, Folde in Shaftesbury as well as at the National Trust’s Corfe Castle.

She has also opened a physical shop in the award-winning Old Thatch pub in Stapehill, near the Farrow & Ball factory in Ferndown. ‘When we were approached by Katie at The Old Thatch to join her beautiful country store inside their cosy, candlelit pub, we found it hard to resist,’ says Tori. ‘We thought it was a fantastic opportunity to try a physical retail space this season, so we can better connect with our local community. I wanted to create the sensory experience that is so difficult to replicate online - especially when it comes to scent, which is so emotive and personal to the individual.’  

Tori and Gemma creating seasonally inspired scent blends for the candles. (Image: Darren Lovell) However, she is keenly aware of the mighty competition from huge chains which churn out homeware ‘accessories’ that are designed to fit with fleeting fads and fashions.

‘Remember when we were all supposed to want pineapples all over our homes?’ she says, referencing an interiors craze from a few years back. ‘So much of what was produced for that will have already gone to landfill. You will never find us over-producing; that’s not what we’re about.’

Tori believes that if we love something, or find it useful and adaptable, we will cherish it for longer and that is also more likely to happen if we have spent mindful time creating it ourselves.

For this reason, she runs hands-on workshops at her Old Green studio, connecting people with the process of creation, where attendees can join others to make something for their home. People can learn candle-making, how to paint glass domes, how to create their own, natural diffusers using scents they have blended themselves, and she is already planning new workshops for the seasons ahead.

‘I’ve seen the effect on people who come here to make and create – they come alive and are so enthusiastic about what they have done,’ she says. ‘Everything we do at Old Green is about being who we are and trying to bring more people into that experience.’

Shop online at oldgreen.co.uk where you will also find a list of local stockists

The signage outside the Old Green studio where candle making courses are held. (Image: Darren Lovell)

Courses at Old Green

Held at their cosy studio on Longmeadow Industrial Estate, near Wimborne, any of these courses would make brilliant Christmas gifts as they are held throughout the year.

Natural Diffuser Blending: Immerse yourself in the art of scent crafting using an array of essential oils, discovering their unique properties and blending them to create a scent that’s distinctly yours. £40pp, Spring Class - March 8

Natural Candle Making: Craft your own custom candle, infused with the natural essential oil scent blend you concoct in this beginner-friendly sessions, and take home both your handmade candles and the skills to make more. £60pp, held monthly, next is December 14.

Seasonal Homeware Painting: Discover the art of glass painting or candle decorating in this step-by-step course suitable for all skill levels and create your own unique glass dome or candle design. £35pp, Winter Class - December 14, Spring Class - March 22.

Book these and other courses at oldgreen.co.uk/sustainable-workshops-parties/