My interest in making handbags started as a young girl when my mother worked at a local tannery where I was able to buy scraps of leather and suede.  From these I made my very first bags in the slightly hippy style of the time.  

It was much later in life after several years of office work that I decided I wanted to do something more creative and enrolled at Cordwainers college in London to study leathergoods production.  

This led to the start of my freelance career designing bags for a handbag factory and making my own bags and leathergoods to sell at various craft markets and shops.  I also undertook some specialist rennovation work on antique crocodile cases and other leather items.  

On moving to a new workshop in East London I discovered Jimmy Choo (a contemporary at Cordwainers) working in the same building and later offered to make bags to match his shoes.  This arrangement continued for a number of years and inspired me to work with different materials such as the silks and satins I use in many of my current designs.  

In 1997 I moved to Poole in Dorset, where I am now based, and continued to make bags on and off for Jimmy Choo and other designers whilst bringing up my 2 children.  Following an interesting challenge setting up and managing a sample workshop for a company in the New Forest I decided to return to what I know and love best - designing and making my own range of handbags.