Having taken holidays over many years in Portugal and always loving their handmade bags and crafts, I took the opportunity to buy a metre of natural cork fabric whilst in Madeira in March 2023. I soon made my first bag and found that people really loved what I’d created and were asking me to make a bag for them! I found a merchant in Lisbon and have been buying from them for over 3 years, making bags that I take to craft markets and sell, providing me with the funds to reinvest and continue the making process. I have sold on ‘Etsy’ and remember being amazed to wake up one morning and discover sales to the USA, many have followed. I now have a small website which helps to promote my ‘brand’ of designs, but I really continue to enjoy the ‘face to face’ contact with people at markets and talk about the ‘cork process’ and Portugal in general.