My name is Teresa Cowley. I am a wife, mother to my 20 month old daughter and handbag designer based in Bellingen, a small transitional and picturesque country town in northern N.S.W Australia. My husband and I moved from the big city of Sydney to grow our businesses from home two years ago. I am 36 years old and have studied Fashion Design at East Sydney's National Art School and completed a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Marketing. My love of the diversity of fashion, art and beauty led me to travel. These inspirational journeys took us to remote places in India and pockets of Europe and of course Australia in my search for amazing fabrics and materials.

My handbag creations began in the summer of 1999 where a passionate pass-time has developed into a business. My current handbag and purse range is dominated by carefully chosen fabrics and each piece captures the beauty and simplicity of nature in a small way. Inspirations for one of my main collections is the era of Marie-Antoinette, these collections have a vintage feel and I service a number of clients who prefer this style of bag. My handbags and purses are locally handcrafted and designed in Australia. We attempt to use quality end-of line fabrics and off-cuts where ever possible to do our bit for the environment and climate change. Hand stitching in some pieces make them unique and special. We adore using upholstery strength to medium light weight fabric for durability, quality and uniqueness.

I have had many design nightmares. One was where I designed a delicate silk purse and spent hours on the embroidery on the front panel. The creme-coloured silk satin fabric I used managed to get easily soiled and the little bag hadn't even been completed. I had also designed a series of little hand purses, however the handles sizes were far too short and I had to have the tailors redo the handles all over again.

My greatest achievement in this process has been making ladies smile when they are sporting one of my creations. I am proud of having my handbags available online and in an ever expanding number of retail stores, however one of my favorite moments was when I was crossing a busy street in the middles of Sydney's CBD and a lady also crossing the road was wearing one my velvet blue numbers so elegantly.