Designing and creating things has always been my passion - ever since I was a little girl. As a child I would become attracted to all sorts of rubbish (perceived as such by others). I could fiercely fall in love with screws, watch parts, fabric scraps, leftovers from a carpenter’s workshop – and I just spent days making things out of it.

Many years later I graduated from Film & Media, so I was trained to be a film critic, but even though studying film was fun, it didn’t work out for me professionally. Soon after finishing university I decided to take the bull by the horns and follow my true passion. In 2007, after a year spent doing work experience in various London studios, I set up my own accessories label.

Although “celapiu” contains part of my own name, it’s actually a word I invented. Looking back, I think it was a kind of charm or battle cry for me at that time, to gain more courage at the threshold of my own adult life as an independent designer.

I have been working with my sister Maja for many years, but only recently - with the arrival of my little son - we decided to formally join forces. We now run celapiu together from our studio in Kraków, Poland and collaborate with felt artist Irena Biskup from Bielsko-Biała, Poland on our felted animal scarves line.