Who we are

ABOUT ME!

I’m Tess and I’m super excited to have started the company I’ve been dreaming up for some time!

A creative girl, I’m always happiest when making, sewing, painting signs or, in the good old days - knocking up a Gruffalo costume (amongst others) for my gorgeous boys.

I grew up in Norwich, near the woods for adventures and surrounded by wonderful sandy beaches, lucky to be part of a very creative (and very green) family.  

My busy and talented mum could do all sorts and made us lots of clothes as kids – I remember being presented with my ‘Summer Collection’ as it were! 4 or 5 beautifully made dresses, Laura Ashley and Liberty print (she’d even smocked a few! – how?!)  Mind you, I do also remember the hell of slowly shuffling round in circles, playing Russian Pin Roulette, while she maybe did or maybe didn’t accidentally stab me with a pin as she made things fit!  It was the 70’s, so she was obviously knocking up the obligatory macrame plant hangers too and I’ll never forget the memory of her sat on a scorching, sandy beach in Italy, knitting a black, batwing, super-fluffy MOHAIR jumper (with 80’s geometric detailing, of course!) hilarious!  She was also busy recycling our cans when it completely wasn’t a thing! (so she had to drag ‘em to scrap metal yards instead)

Dad is a handy and talented chap too – my sister and I used to lurch about the garden on the wooden stilts he’d made, and took our lives into our hands barrelling down our hill, heading straight for the busy main road, on the varnished wooden go kart he made us.  It’s sophisticated braking system involved shoving a stick against the wheel, hoping no fingers were jammed in between!  I remember finding him quietly doing an excellent sketch from a photo of my sister – when I had no idea he could even draw!  In recent years, I’ve been blown away by the stained-glass windows he’s created – He’s a clever boy!  Very sporty, he was also a dangerous rugger bugger back in the day, and being 80 does not stop the morning press up routine that left my teenage boys open mouthed, it also hasn’t put a dent in his jazz tromboning in various bands and I’m pretty sure he's still ransacking down the Welsh mountains on his bike, with scant thought for safety!

I also have 3 beautiful sisters with all manner of talents (one has just started learning to make jewellery, and I can’t wait to see more!) and a creative, lovely step-mum, who’s a busy bee, but can often be found under some happily coloured wool; knitting, crocheting, felting or rag rugging, full of ideas for fabulous things to make and do!

And I’m an art school girl, who studied photography and went on to work with interior designers and architects which I loved.  I had two gorgeous boys and was always designing things and scribbling down endless ideas while bringing them up, galloping off for adventures and trying to cope with the ensuing mayhem.  While they were little I got very involved in the PTA, meeting fab people and learning the art of chucking together huge events filled with activities, stalls, mini zoos, creativity, bake offs, book swaps, charities, costumes and often cocktails too.  And usually all in a couple of weeks – as I can be a bit of a Last Minute Larry at times!  It was wonderful to have the opportunity and freedom to create so much, from painting signs, sets and little faces (which I still get to do),to styling twinkly grottos to whole Wild West or Circus themed fairs! Heaven!

Bokki has been slow cooking for a long time and back in the day this worried me for a bit.. but I soon accepted that time helps develop ideas, and things happen when they happen, for very good reason.  
So, I concentrated on bringing up my delicious boys and keeping books filled with designs and ideas to unleash on the world when the time was right.

I’m not the teenage business prodigy I dreamt of being, but that’s cool – I’ve been busy percolating! And if I’ve been percolating for 50 years, (God NO! Is it true?!) you KNOW that is a strong cup of coffee to take away! 

I’ve always had that Richard Branson kind of mind that has an idea for something and within 9 minutes has done the branding and thought out how to turn it into a little empire!  Sending seeds to my mum as a lockdown gift, making Biltong for my dad, or Sloe gin and mulled wine for friends – it’s all fully branded in my house!!

Branson and I both have ADHD.  Mainly, I find it sucks – but it’s very common in entrepreneurs, apparently.  It tends to mean your head is filled with ideas at all times, which is as great as it is exhausting.  You think Very Big - in ways and on a scale that tends not to even occur to other people.  You can be fearless, take more risks, work hours other people can’t sustain and not give up till you make it happen.  Obviously, there’s nothing relaxing about that at all!  So, it’s important to find ways to try and manage it for you and your famille, but you know what always calms me down?  

My tapestry kits! They REALLY, truly chill me out! 

Recently I had an overwhelmed and super-stressed moment, when I realised I just need to sew – but remembered I’d finished my 3 samples I’d been sewing for months and I was gutted! 

I NEEDED it. Like Dot Cotton needs a faaaag!  (but luckily tapestry doesn’t make you stink and it brings only peace and gorgeousness, rather than cancer and death!). I started on No. 4 and peace was restored! 

I hope the kits can bring you the same feeling of peace and calm too, as it’s an activity that’s scientifically proven to improve people’s mental and physical health.

I’m excited to keep adding to these tapestry kit designs, and this website and want you to know that what you see now is just a tiny corner of all I have planned for Bokki, so stick with us, it’s gonna be a wonderful ride!

Tess x