About Us

 

Tempol is a sustainable, fair trade, and self made small business run and established by Suzanne Curphey in 1996!

 

Tempol was created by my mother before I was born. She learnt everything completely from scratch and did her research with library books. Working alongside her talented tailors she began to design as well.

 

Ever since I was 2 months old I have partook in this process. My mother and I spend the winters in India to create our Tempol designs. This is a lengthy hands on process that we are a part of every step of the way. 

It all started with the cloth… 

And it still does 

India is known for their incredible textiles and stunning vibrant colours. Many perfectly good saris are discarded after a few uses. We hand choose through hundreds of recycled silk saris to be made into our new designs. We give each sari a second chance. 

Our Tempol design take a lot of time and care. We tweak our sample with the master tailor until it is perfect.

 

Over the past 28 years, Suzanne has grown close with her tailors and their families ! Watching them grow along with us, attending their weddings, funerals and birthdays we remain tightly knitted.

 

 

 

 

She designs all her Tempol creations with them, hand picks recycled sari silk and cloth from the block printers, and checks through all her pieces individually for quality control. 

As for the jewelry, Suzanne searches through all those tiny family owned shops where she sorts through to find all our Tempol treasures ! Piece chosen by the artisans in Tibetan markets throughout India.

Supporting tailors, artisans and Tibetan refugees who have become family to us, Suzanne constantly gives back to the Indian community with her earnings. A large portion of her profits go back to the communities, schools, charities and village life. By supporting us, you are supporting a large community throughout India.

As anyone close to Suzanne will know, she in a hands on worker and strays away from anything online ! This is why she handed the online opportunity to me, her daughter :) Online, I hope to share her creations alone with my own !

Tempol was inspired by my mother’s love of travel, of adventure, of exploration, or learning and of experience. After travelling the world and being nomadic all her life, India’s colours caught her and drew her in. 

 

Hope you enjoy