Beautiful Bags for Practical Souls
Hi, my name is Jo, the creative mind behind One Busy Sloth. I live with a beautiful man and two vivacious kids, and not forgetting our very grumpy old cat, the Dowager! When I'm not dreaming of new designs and sewing, I'm in the kitchen cooking and baking. I think good wholesome food is as much of a pick-me-up as a gorgeous handbag :-)
The name One Busy Sloth is a mischievous play with words - an oxymoron. In a nut shell, I was the laziest person when growing up - I’d do as little as possible. But since becoming a mum, I thrive on busy – I have ants in my pants if I had to sit around doing nothing! And hence I am now known as the One Busy Sloth!
I come from a family of dreamers and makers. My three sisters and I all grew up wearing mum’s kimono style night dress made on her Singer treadle sewing machine, something we probably took for granted back then, not appreciating the love that went into making them. Dad has a knack for dreaming up amazing lantern designs that he’d make to sell during the mid-autumn festival at our old shop in Chinatown Singapore. So it is no surprise that I will follow in my parents’ love of designing and making.
Like many makers who ventured into starting a small creative business, I started out happily dabbling in all kinds of crafts, starting with scrapbooking, card making, and then moving on to jewellery making. It is a wonderful creative outlet and a great escape from the monotonous daily grind of being a stay at home mum.
Then came that momentous day, when I found myself staring at my Ikea easy chair, and that tired looking cushion cover peering sadly back at me. I decided it’s time I learn to sew. Surprisingly, it was my father who taught me how to sew on a sewing machine. I bought my first sewing machine three months later, a second hand 1970s Husqvarna, and there was no stopping me after that.
Sydney has been my home for almost 20 years, and here I live my creative life, making beautiful bags and purses. It’s in my upbringing – making with our hands. The process of shopping for fabric (a terribly additive past time), sketching and designing a new range for my brand, and after weeks or months of tweaking - seeing the finished product – that satisfaction simply cannot be expressed in words fully.
I handcraft all my gems from a little studio amongst the gum trees, with the sounds of kookaburra laughing. I live in a beautiful suburb of Sydney, our little piece of paradise, and I don’t ever take it for granted how blessed I am. It is not easy, by any measure, running a one-woman small business and juggling the demands of a young family, but it keeps me challenged, it gives me a purpose and it has introduced me to a whole world of amazing creative souls out there, some of whom I am privileged to call friends. I am a long time member of Handmade Cooperative, a collective of like-minded business women working together to celebrate the best in handmade for kids. There's never been a more exciting time to be a maker!
If you’d like to see more of my work and keep in touch with my business journey, I would love to have you join my Sloth club here: http//:tinyurl.com/onebusysloth.
