Syd&Co

Venturing from teacher to full time designer maker a dream come true!

Syd&Co was founded by me Gemma Gonzalez in 2013 on my kitchen table. My story began when I was much younger. I had my son when I was 17 years old. Whilst bringing him up I studied hard at a local art college and gained a first class degree and a Masters with distinction in Contemporary Applied Arts. I lived and breathed being creative but I needed stability and income so I worked as a teacher of Textile Design in schools and colleges for over 15 years. It was then that I realised that something big was missing from my life and I needed to be creative again. I dusted down my sewing machine and started randomly stitching personalised faces of teachers onto pencil cases. They were such a big hit and people started to contact me with all sorts of ideas. What started as a little idea has now turned into a fulltime family venture. Now I don’t stitch, everything instead begins as a drawing. I feel like I’m living my creative dream.