Betty's Revenge

Massive

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy) — Sun, 07 Dec 2014 14:12:00 +0000

The cockatiel and the gramophone

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy) — Sun, 07 Dec 2014 13:51:00 +0000

the young cockatiel was a curious thing
he'd cock his tuft ear at the slightest soft ping
the gramophone sang
he looked on a-pang
for the opera he knew he could never quite sing

Limerician ventures - first up, blue tit

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy) — Sun, 07 Dec 2014 13:46:00 +0000

there was a young tit of the brightest of blue
with yellows and greens, of beauty he knew
the envy of peers
he laughed at their tears
and wiggled his rear as he flew

Portobello Rocks

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy) — Sat, 24 May 2014 08:31:00 +0000

Betty's Revenge will be at the June launch of Portobello Rocks. Alongside purses and bags there will be new handpainted jewellery and ceramic coasters (with accompanying limericks). Other stalls will include clothing, vintage & collectables, arts and crafts.

Portobello Rocks, summer 2014

Living Library 2014

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy) — Sat, 24 May 2014 08:14:00 +0000

Living Library poster 2014

"Ever wondered what would happen if your books came to life? Find out at LSHTM's Living Library event on the 10th of June".

I've updated my poster from last year for the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine 'Living Library' event, part of Universities Week 2014, where you can borrow researchers with your library card!

The living books will open discussions to explore your views on UK and international health research including:

the fight against super bugs
the first Ebola epidemic
a wonder drug that halts bleeding
the data debate
violence prevention
mosquito repellent myth-busting.

It's free but booking is required. You can also listen to a podcast from a previous event.

@Bettys_Revenge

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy) — Tue, 15 Apr 2014 13:57:00 +0000

Am now on Twitter if you'd like to follow updates, general art/exhibition info for myself and many others!

Follow @Bettys_Revenge

Betty at Goldsmiths continues

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy) — Tue, 15 Apr 2014 13:43:00 +0000

The exhibition continues through April. If you'd like to see my sketchbooks, design development and research they are an 'archive' item in Special Collections, just ask at the gallery!

Wearable technology

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy) — Mon, 03 Mar 2014 21:14:00 +0000

Venturing into new territory in a potential collaboration with Oumi, an innovative new emotive wearable technology brand. The creator Bushra Kelsey Burge (lecturer at London College of Fashion) has her finger firmly on the pulse! Meanwhile I'm enjoying the work of talented Alice Tams, I love birds and birds in hats are impossible to resist, already ordered a calendar for my office!

Budgie in a Trilby with Novelty Sunglasses by Alice Tams

Private View at Goldsmiths College

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy) — Sun, 02 Mar 2014 19:44:00 +0000

Contrasting Betty's Revenge contemporary bags and purses with beautiful purses from the Goldsmiths Textile Collection archive, the ensemble is exhibiting at the Special Collections Gallery at Goldsmiths College until Easter. Curated by myself and Lizzie Cannon.

Beermat/Coaster - Goldsmiths University of London

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy) — Tue, 21 Jan 2014 11:39:00 +0000

Had great fun designing this coffee/beer mat for Welcome Week! The Library was now open 24/7, had a 60s style refurb and a new cafe. The 'night' side became the Twitter and Facebook icon for Goldsmiths Library.

Coffee mat, day

Coffee mat, night

Hula Hoop bag

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy) — Mon, 28 Oct 2013 12:08:00 +0000

Commissioned for the Skip Theatre girls, professional hula hoopers and skippers who perform in clubs - so they need their hands free to have a dance too!

Living Library - Bloomsbury Festival

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy) — Sun, 27 Oct 2013 16:31:00 +0000

Delighted to design for this now annual event at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine which was very busy with lots of human books in character! Part of the Bloomsbury Festival. Will gradually put up recent freelance commissions...

Poster Design

THE SUBVERSIVE STITCH REVISITED: THE POLITICS OF CLOTH

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy) — Sun, 27 Oct 2013 16:21:00 +0000

Very busy working with the team on this event - the tickets go on sale tomorrow. Tweets can be followed @Subv_Stitch

If you'd like to tweet about it please use #subv13 - thank you!

Friday 29- Saturday 30 November 2013 Sackler Centre for arts education,

Victoria and Albert Museum, Cromwell Rd, London SW7 2RL

Keynote Speakers: Professor Griselda Pollock, University of Leeds, UK and artist Elaine Reichek, USA

The Subversive Stitch Revisited: The Politics of Cloth is an international event that will explore the legacy of Rozsika Parker’s groundbreaking book, The Subversive Stitch: embroidery and the making of the feminine (1984) and two landmark exhibitions from 1988 that developed Parker’s ideas. It will consist of a two-day event held at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and an online resource that will include documentation of all contributions. The event will be dedicated to the memory of Rozsika Parker, who died in 2010.

The first day will begin by looking back to the art and feminist debates of the 1970s and 80s from which both the book and the exhibitions emerged, and will feature keynote presentations by Professor Griselda Pollock, University of Leeds, whose collaborative work with Parker during that period produced key feminist art texts, and leading American artist Elaine Reichek in conversation with Jenni Sorkin (University of California, Santa Barbara).

The event will then explore the politics of cloth now, focusing on current activity by both women and men that addresses ethical, social and global issues, and on cloth as a subversive strategy, with an emphasis on radical, subversive and interventionist projects that question and challenge structures of power.

Speakers include:

Megha Rajguru + Nicola Ashmore, Đorđe Balmazović, Michael Bath, Claire Barber + Rowan Bailey, Lise Bjørne Linnert, Leah Borromeo, Anthea Black + Nicole Burisch, Christine Checinska, Sarah Corbett, Steffi Duarte, Leora Farber, Elke Gaugele, Betsy Greer, Roisin Inglesby, Alexandra Kokoli, Kimberly Lamm, Anne Moore, Brenda Schmahmann, Rose Sinclair, Jenni Sorkin, Matt Smith, Lisa Vinebaum, Liese Van Der Watt

Bookings will go live on Monday 28th October on

https://subversivestitchrevisited.eventbrite.co.uk/

For general enqueries please contact subversivestitch@gold.ac.uk

• Please note: Presentations on the first day will be held in the Hochhauser Auditorium and on the second in a large seminar room, with a smaller capacity. This means that more tickets are available for the first day than the second. Therefore tickets will need to be booked separately for each day.

• There will be a limited number of discounted tickets for bona fide students on a first-come-first-served basis.

The Subversive Stitch Revisited is collaboration between The Women's Art Library, Goldsmiths, University of London, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, and writer and curator Pennina Barnett, and in partnership with Iniva (Institute of International Visual Art).

Poster image adapted from The Subversive Stitch sampler by Lyn Malcolm, commissioned by Cornerhouse and the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester for The Subversive Stitch exhibitions 1988. Designer: Jessica Smulders Cohen.

Twitter: @Subv_Stitch

Welsh Space Campaign

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy) — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 10:45:00 +0000

Hello

Have been moving into more freelance design work while still making bespoke bag orders, hence a long time since posting. I couldn't resist posting about this one:

The Welsh Space Campaign, by Hefin Jones, has won this year's Christine Risley Award, at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Goldsmiths BA (Hons) Design graduate Hefin, from Cardigan in Wales, created a space suit made by Welsh craftsmen from materials sourced in Wales.

A plumber has built a pressure system for the spacesuit, a traditional clog maker has made space clogs, and the last remaining wool mills in Wales have provided material for the space suit.

Hefin explains: "The Welsh Space Campaign (WSC) launches ordinary Welsh people into outer space, by finding a cosmic context for Welsh culture, skills and traditions. I aim to reveal that Wales has the capacity to explore space, and to show that off-world culturalisation can be achieved through a collective communitarian effort; as a way to allow the people involved to reconsider their role and skill in relation to these cosmic contexts."

The piece will be exhibited in the Constance Howard Gallery at Goldsmiths from 24 September - 24 October, after which it will become part of the Welsh National Museum Archive.

The Christine Risley Award is a cash prize awarded by the Goldsmiths Textile Collection & Constance Howard Gallery to a graduating Goldsmiths student for outstanding work relating to textiles, in memory of Christine Risley.

As a textile artist, Christine Risley (1926-2003) was a key member of Constance Howard's remarkable and innovative department of textiles. In the 1960s Christine pioneered the teaching of machine embroidery and established one of the most exciting courses of the period. A great teacher, and writer on the subject, she encouraged her students to be adventurous in both work and life.

Christine retired in 1990 and died in 2003, and her special collection of clothes helped to fund acquisitions for the Goldsmiths Textile Collection. Each year, an outstanding Goldsmiths graduate working with the medium of textiles is awarded a prize in her memory.

Bags inspiring poetry

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 18:06:00 +0000

The exhibition 'Bags: The Craft of the Carrying Companion' has now ended but the display was superb. Some local writers were inspired to write a couple of poems, the first one refers to my large purse and the second one is solely about the large purse which asks questions that several passers by ask me on the street!

Bags

Big bags and small bags.

Short bags and tall bags.

Bags of every size and shape.

Made of fabric softly draped.

Some of leather, new and old.

Shiny, polished, good to hold.

Bags to carry on bus or train.

Bags built to carry extra strains.

Cases for clothes and underwear.

Cases for picnics we love to share.

Some open out flat as a sheet.

Some fold down, nice and neat.

A giant purse takes centre stage

Try your hand at decoupage,

Or leather strips for you to weave

Items here you won’t believe

Giant purse

What do you put in a giant purse?

Some pennies to pay for a journey home,

Or a lovely dinner for when you get back?

Make up to enhance a lovely face?

A lacy hanky to stop a sneeze?

A comb and brush to tidy hair?

There’s lots and lots of room in there.

These beautiful suitcases at the same exhibition really stood out for me.

Sea Spurge

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy) — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 17:16:00 +0000

Sea Spurge: Old Hunstanton Beach, Norfolk

When I went on a short trip to the Norfolk coast and a very slow meander among the sand dunes... couldn't believe the colours on this plant... apparently it's called 'Sea Spurge'.

Recycled selection

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy) — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 17:11:00 +0000

A couple of platefuls of a few new printed and recycled purses...

Bilston Craft Gallery

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy) — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 18:52:00 +0000

BAGS: THE CRAFT OF THE CARRYING COMPANION

BILSTON CRAFT GALLERY

15 DECEMBER 2012 - 9 MARCH 2013
This exhibition is free and up and running in Bilston, just outside Wolverhampton. The curation is very impressive and I love this picture they took of a selection of printed and recycled Betty's Revenge bags.

Betty's Revenge bags at Bilston Craft Gallery

Alice in Wonderland

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy) — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 11:58:00 +0000

Alice in Wonderland at Goldsmiths: Siân Downes

Hope you had a lovely break, I shall miss our Christmas tree at work this year, in the library at Goldsmiths College...which also randomly featured in the Guardian. The decorations comprise of the recycling of an old Alice in Wonderland book that had seen better days and messages from the students.

Picture taken by Siân Downes

Happy Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy) — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 20:08:00 +0000

Hello, hope you have a lovely Christmas break...

Arnie

I'm doing a very last minute market at the weekend on Sunday in the lively area of Shoreditch at the Rich Mix, it will be inside in the warm and dry and lots of goodies!

Wools for woolies

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy) — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 15:51:00 +0000

The Vauxhall City Farm will be selling wools which have been dyed naturally and spun at the farm on Saturday 8th December 11am - 4pm. I've been reliably informed that there will also be mulled cider and mince pies (I'm not a knitter, no patience, but I know lots of people are so do head there if you are as the prices will be very reasonable too)!

Jerry and Hazel (copyright Vauxhall City Farm)

Christmas time

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy) — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 21:11:00 +0000

Pop down if you can!

Ranbu - Japan

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy) — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 12:21:00 +0000

Purses in Ranbu

I'm delighted to be stocking in Ranbu again in Osaka, Japan. I really like their style, and how I wish I had the fare to go and visit myself! They also have a blog.

Betty's Revenge Bag

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy) — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 17:55:00 +0000

'Betty's Revenge' bag modelled by Sarah Longman

I love this picture of Sarah modelling the 'Betty's Revenge' bag, she looks stunning (for sizing the bag fits an A4 folder).

World Mosquito Day 2012 - 'Cocktail Hour in the Human Library'

noreply@blogger.com (Cathy) — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 16:45:00 +0000

Gilded Vector of Malaria - on outside of building of LSHTM

Not quite the invitation I was expecting but I will be participating in a 'Human Library' event as a Textile book - as part of World Mosquito Day 2012 at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. I will be 'borrowed' and then discuss three 'chapters' on my bag making and designing! Details below if you fancy attending the event (with cocktail)...

presented by The LSHTM Malaria Centre

Date: Thursday 16 August 2012
Time: 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Venue: Library, LSHTM, Keppel Street, London, WC1E 7HT, UK

This year to celebrate World Malaria Day 2012, The Malaria Centre at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, will host a human library where experts from the Malaria Centre are 'on loan' instead of books. Guests will be able to 'borrow' up to 5 human books and will circulate around the library to the sounds of our in house 1930's band.

A complimentary cocktail and south-Indian canapes will be included in the price.
Entertainment will be provided by musician Emily O'Hara and singer, Patricia Hammond, 'the Canadian nightingale'.

Mosquito Day honours August 20th 1897 when Sir Ronald Ross made the discovery that malaria is transmitted by mosquitos and is inspired by the tea party held in his honour at the Ross Institute on 20th August 1931 - in this spirit, there will be a 1930's/tropical theme to the event as well as celebrating the contemporary work of malaria centre members across the world.

Admission: Registration required

Email: malaria@lshtm.ac.uk