From making gifts for fun to setting up a global business, Jaine Blackman talks to Joana Silva

When Joana Silva started making bags and sock monkeys for fun, she had little idea that it would lead to her setting up an international business.

But from teaching herself to sew, she is in the process of creating a home designs company based in Oxford and Lisbon.

Joana graduated from bags, to dolls, aprons, quilts and more, making many of them as presents.

“Then, one Christmas, came the most important request of them all – a pouf for my little brother’s new house,” says Joana, 33, who lives off Cowley Road, Oxford.

“Whilst for all my other items, I could let go of the perfectionist in me, this one had to be absolutely amazing. I poured so much love and energy into it, I’m surprised the thing is not out distributing hugs as we speak.”

Joana is originally from Porto in Portugal and sending a fully-filled pouf to her brother Antero, 30, who works in IT project magangement in Lisbon, was not an option. So she left it to him to fill.

“As he took the pouf to different shops in search for the best fillers, people commented on the item, how cool it looked, how they’d love one, what a great idea it was.

“Right in front of our eyes, our endless search for a business we could run together appeared – Guiva.”

Guiva aims to be a home décor business “looking to bring iconic and bold items to homes everywhere”.

“We’re at the very early stages of our business; we have a registered brand, a logo and a web domain,” says Joana, who moved to Oxford in 2008 and works in communications for a science lab.

“As for products, we will start with with happy colourful poufs at the centre of our business idea. We now also have a designer on board and have three fabric designs of our own; right now we are working out where to have the fabric printed to the standard we want, which sounds easier than it is. We want to launch our business with the pouf, in the three fabric designs we’ve created. “The pouf is about 30cm tall and 60cm wide and we aim to sell it for £120 (€150). “We’d like to sell online, as well as have our items in shops which fit our brand style, irrespective of location. “Realistically, we’ll possibly start with Lisbon and Oxford.

“We already have ideas for other pouf and fabric designs, and funky dolls too.”

The company (guiva.pt) is a mix of the siblings’ family names, GUImarães from their mother and SilVA from their father. We wanted a brand name that was easily pronounced in Portuguese and English; it’s important for us to reflect where we come from, but also where I now call home,” says Joana.

“My time in Oxford has been absolutely fantastic, much thanks to the wonderful friends and people who populate my life.”

Joana started sewing as a hobby and in the summer of 2006, her mum gave her a sewing machine for her birthday.

“That same summer, I moved to the UK; the sewing machine followed me later in the year,” she says. “I was (and still am) obsessed with bags and realised life would be so much better if I could make my own, exactly how I imagined them in head. I borrowed my aunt’s sewing machine and eight years later this hobby has transformed my life.

“When I started sewing all those years ago, I didn’t think I’d be starting a home décor business with my little brother. And I certainly didn’t think we’d be doing it based in two different countries.”