Left to right: Maja Rose, Anna Murray, and Tess Lloyd with their 'Polli' babies. Photos: Naomi Leonard.

When Maja Rose and Tess Lloyd started selling their fun polypropylene baskets at local markets, they also recycled the off-cuts into brightly coloured earrings. The earrings proved even more popular than the baskets, and now Polli’s fine Australian-made and designed jewellery is sold all over the world.

These days Maja, Tess and studio manager Anna Murray work in a lovely studio space in Stanmore, Sydney. What’s more they take their children Indi (2) Will (4 months) Jasper (1) Ruby (5) and Harvey (2) to work with them! Maja and Tess give us some tips on children in the workspace…

Inside Polli's busy studio space.

At Polli we’re working mums and we’ve had 5 Polli babies in the studio over the past five years. Our biggest piece of advice is to be easy on yourself and set realistic expectations of what you can achieve; after all you’re now doing two jobs at once! While it’s not easy juggling work and caring for a little one, here are some tips that might help:

Share childcare with a friend.
– Splitting nanny costs makes it much more affordable.
– Alternating work days and looking after each other’s children can be a great idea.

Top images: The children keep busy in the designated play area of the studio. Bottom image: Ruby helps out by assembling a Polli Eco Deco Kit. Photos: Naomi Leonard.

Make a stimulating play area where you know the kids can play safely.
– This way you don’t have to child-proof the entire work-place.
– Rotate toys so that there’s always something new. Avoid noisy toys; they will drive you crazy.
– Get older kids to help. Simple tasks like putting things in envelopes, applying stickers to packaging etc.

Tess Lloyd takes a break with her children Will and Indi, and Anna's son Harvey.

Planning your day.
– Consider working early or late when your partner can look after the children or when your child is sleeping.
– Take your child on errands during their awake times and use their sleep times for thinking tasks.
– Prioritise your day; babies can be unpredictable so get the essentials out of the way first.
– Organise your evening meals for the week so arriving home with a hungry baby/child/self doesn’t mean takeaway for dinner every night. Maja has recently started ordering The Dinner Ladies’ home delivered meals, Tess and Indie plan a walk to their local fruiterer as part of their evening routine, and Anna cooks a big soup every weekend for busy week nights.

5 year-old Ruby gets ready to have morning tea at the Polli studio.

Get organised.
– We invested in a change table, travel cot and bouncer for the studio.
– Organise baby bags, food and your clothes the night before to avoid early morning dramas. Also keep essentials in the studio so you’re not caught short and you don’t need to carry as much each day.
– Pack snacks for the kids, and don’t forget yourself ! Keeping up energy levels with healthy snacks is important for everyone, especially new and breast-feeding mums.

Visit polli.com.au to see Tess and Maja’s latest collection of fine jewellery for grown-ups, and their new pendants made especially for kids called Sweet Polli.

Photo Credit: Naomi Leonard