Born in Hong Kong, at age twelve Nora Fok left school to work in a factory assembling toys and computer components. Eventually, she was “determined to leave the factory and have a career in art and design”. While still in Hong Kong she studied and worked as a graphic designer. In 1978 she was accepted for the three-dimensional design course at the Brighton Polytechnic in England. While there, she studied a variety of materials including plastics, and experimented with knitting, knotting and dying nylon fishing line. Inspired by the material and the new emphasis on exploring non-traditional materials in jewelry, she began to design in that field.
In the late 1980s, after marrying and starting a family, she embarked on a career creating jewelry from her own home-studio in Hove, England. She uses nylon monofilament exclusively, employing simple equipment and basic techniques to manipulate the material. Her intricate pieces demonstrate her mastery of knitting, hand-working, and coloring nylon filament, and her ability to capture delicate organic forms, particularly flowers and plants. Her designs are often very complex, requiring many hours, days or weeks to produce.