She wouldn't have it any other way.

"I only employ women - they are clever, neat, tidy careful," Turner says.

Of course, she clarifies, she has employed men in the past and she will always hire the best person for the role. Her all-woman team is, however, "not just a casual thing."

"It has just evolved with the type of products we sell and being a family-friendly employer that we continue to grow our really capable, all-female team," she says, adding that 10 of her staff have forklift licences.

"I have a lot of mums in the warehouse who work school hours and they work hard during those hours and they are able to have school holidays off."

The daughter of AMP Control founder Peter Cockbain, AM, Turner is the founder and CEO of Beresfield-based, leading arts and crafts supplier CleverPatch.

Raised in Raworth, she attended boarding school at Armidale then started an accounting traineeship before moving into recruitment.

She then worked at an education supplies company for a decade before deciding to go it alone and launch CleverPatch in 2009.

While other educational suppliers offer a broad range of materials CleverPatch focuses on the creative side.

"We did that for two reasons - firstly, [our market] evolves quickly but you are selling things that people use and need more of, so you are better being in consumables than in something that lasts five or seven years," she says.

"Secondly, children learn through creative activities without realising it, whereas maths and literacy is defined. It is also great to be able to design products that you know children are really keen to use in a classroom or holiday program, where they get to make all the fun (and mess) and take the final masterpiece home."

Starting with a few staff, Turner now has more than 30 on her payroll.

"I think the thing you work out is when you end up with a great team in such a positive industry, supplying to teachers and parents, it's a really nice product to sell. It does the work for itself. I don't know a child who doesn't like art."

CleverPatch is a preferred supplier of education departments in NSW and Queensland and more than 80 per cent of its 4000-plus products are custom-designed by its creative team. Its products are then manufactured by "an array of Australian and global makers" before being distributed to customers from CleverPatch's distribution centre in Beresfield.

"Our team is really good at predicting and responding to [product] trends they see online and especially to feedback from teachers and parents," Turner says.

"Importantly we need to ensure our products meet a need and in turn can be incorporated into the curriculum."

Prior to COVID-19, CleverPatch sold products exclusively via their printed catalogues and some on their online store.

When the pandemic hit, sales dropped by 47 per cent overnight as schools shut.

Successfully applying for JobKeeper, CleverPatch responded by assembling arts and craft packs for schools to send to children.

It sold 16 years' worth of chalk in eight weeks as the craze of street footpath drawing peaked. It even put a Do It Yourself chalk recipe on its social media channels to help customers make it at home.

"We had to reinvent ourselves," Turner says.

Her staff rallied to put every single CleverPatch product on a virtual catalogue for parents and any "crafty people" to buy from.

"It meant customers could shop directly from the catalogue pages rather than needing to see a printed catalogue," she says.

The company also applied to Service NSW to be a Creative Kids provider so families could use their vouchers for its products.

"What we were hearing was that no-one could use their vouchers because kids weren't going anywhere, so to be accredited we created products with a learning outcome," Turner says.

"We have large groups of people buying multiple packs. It's effectively costing them nothing and when they pool their vouchers, they are getting multiple days of learning."

With school back to normal, the company is back to similar trade however it will take time for trade at craft events - traditionally attracting thousands of children in shopping centres - to recover.

"We interact with teachers and educators daily and whilst we have been visiting schools and childcare centres far less during COVID, we interact via phone, email and our social channels even more," Turner says.

CleverPatch is interested in manufacturing items in-house but Turner says the amount of machinery and componentry would be too costly given the current size of the domestic market.

"We do produce all of our own activity, lesson and video content which is a unique and growing part of the business," she says.

CleverPatch has donated supplies for group art classes to Maitland Regional Art Gallery as its "creative partner" for more than a decade.

Turner, who has a painting of her daughter Amelia's in her office, believes craft activities in a group are more beneficial for kids than doing them solo: "When you see how easily children learn art techniques in workshops you quickly realise they have no fear of making mistakes when it comes to art, in stark contrast to most other subjects."

Having grown up in a family with a strong work ethic, she admits "highly motivated is all I have ever known."

"I love finding solutions to challenges and being around positive people who enjoy good banter and a laugh," she says, adding with a smile of her industry: "It's rare to have negative experience with one of our customers. It's not like selling life insurance."

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