This week’s Featured Zibbeter is Nora Hessayon from Leah Rose Designs. Nora is from our growing member base in London!

Nora sews, knits and crochets her own unique designs. Her shop is beautifully designed, with an assortment of cushions, hats, scarves, bags and necklaces.

Make sure you check out her shop today! You will love it!

Please enjoy the interview, leave Nora a comment, and then use the Share Tools so others can read it, too. Please spread the Zibbet Love!

1. Tell us a bit about yourself?

   My name is Nora Hessayon and I live in Camden in London.  I am actually Scottish and was born in a small village outside Glasgow. I have lived all over the UK and I also lived abroad for several years but I feel quite settled in London now and doubt whether we will ever move. London is such a fun and vibrant place and there is so much going on.  I am married to Neil my lovely long suffering husband and have two grown up sons and two gorgeous grand children.   We also have a very fat and rather spoilt tabby cat, Milly, who is our baby.

2. Apart from being ‘creative’ what do you do?

   I like to cook especially experimenting with complicated new recipes but my passion is baking. I have just recently retired from my “day” job as a Control Manager for London Overground Railway. Despite being a very rewarding job it could be, at times, quite stressful so my release was in crafting and also baking.  Now of course I can indulge myself as much as I wish and it is brilliant.

3. What inspires you to do the kind of work you do?

   I have always had a love of making things which comes, I think, from my mother. She trained professionally with the British City and Guilds as a tailoress when she came to the UK as a refugee from Vienna during the war.

   I remember using her old Singer treadle machine to make clothes for my dolls even before I went to school. She was a perfectionist and a bit of a tyrant, if a seam wasn’t straight I had to unpick it and start again. I am, I suppose, in a way very much like her everything has to be just right. My mother sadly passed away a few years ago but every time I sew or knit something it reminds me of her.

4. Do you look up to anyone? Who? Why?

   I very much admire Mary Portas. She is, I suppose, what you would call a retail  ”guru” and she campaigns ceaselessly for better customer service on the British High Street.  She has been nicknamed Mary Queen of Shops, a pun on Mary Queen of Scots.  She is passionate and selfless about what she does and has probably single handedly turned round the fortunes of several High Street brands which in a declining market is no mean feat.  But she is also very much a champion of the individual craftsman and artisan, a position obviously dear to my own heart, and argues that we should recognise that not everything has to be mass produced to be of any value.

5. What other passions do you have in your life?

   I think that I answered that in question 2 but if you need more information please ask me and I will try to elaborate.

6. What do you like most about Zibbet?

   I love it that everybody is so friendly and if you need advice, no matter how basic, someone will always offer to provide assistance. The forum on the Community Hub is great and it is so nice to be able to interact with other Zibbeters and sound out their opinions even if it is only to moan about the lack of sales !

7. What ‘new’ things would you like to see added to Zibbet?

   I would love it if Zibbeters could have the chance to ”curate” the front page for themselves either by creating Pinterest boards or by suggesting items to be shown, though perhaps not necessarily all their own work. That way the front page could be more themed and better organised as it can, dare I say it, be a little haphazard and random at the moment. You could even offer a contest

   for the best curated front page in that month  /  week which might encourage people to participate.

8. How do you promote your work?

   I use all the usual channels – Facebook, Pinterest, Flikr and the Community Hub but I don’t have a blog. I keep meaning to start one but all this promoting is such hard work I would much rather spend my time creating

9. How would you recommend other Zibbeters make the most of Zibbet.com?

   I would recommend them to use the forum and read the columns in the blog. I have, as a newbie, gained invaluable advice whenever I have been unsure about any procedures or wished to know how to do something.

10. In the future I’d like to be…

    I don’t really have any burning ambitions, as such.   I have done lots of different and exciting things in my life already although I  have  perhaps not achieved everything that I thought I would  when I was a teenager. But I did go back to London University when I was already in my mid fifties and get my second Masters Degree. As long as my children and grandchildren are happy and I can continue crafting I think that is all that I could wish for.

Tags: Featured Zibbeters, LeahRoseDesigns