‘Take me outside, sit in the green gardenNobody out there, but it’s okay nowBathe in the sunlight, don’t mind if rain fallsTake me outside, sit in the green garden…’ We love Laura Mvula’s ‘Green Garden’, her love song to nature. She has said her 2013 song celebrates the creative influence of her childhood back garden in the suburbs of Birmingham, England: “When we moved to our … Continue reading Green garden
With the gradual reopening of life in London, this week we were able to open up the shop again at Couture Collective. What a pleasure it is to be able to welcome people back in, to hear how they’ve been, to reconnect. It’s been a long dark slog of a winter, but things seem to be brightening up. One thing that’s clear is that we … Continue reading Talking shop
We’re excited to get started on our latest collaboration with London artist Jane Bristowe! Last year we produced our signature walkabout bag and fabric facemark using Jane’s lively dog prints. You can see her work here on her website, and you can see more about the dog-print walkabout and mask set here. This new Bledsoe & Bristowe collaboration uses Jane’s gorgeous cat prints (Ginger Cat … Continue reading What’s new pussycat?
Hello friends and supporters! The dog days are over, and what fun they were! We’ve loved doing this Bledsoe & Bristowe limited edition collaboration with Fulham linocut artist @jane_bristowe! We worked together to have her dog designs printed onto fabric, which we used to make our popular walkabout phone bag and matching facemask. We decided to use the collaboration to support the Mayhew, a charity … Continue reading The dog days are over!
Here at Bledsoe Bags we’re missing the craft fairs and festivals that let us meet customers and show our work and hear their stories. We don’t thrive in an online environment, and our bags don’t either. Like our customers, our bags are one-off pieces, unique individuals with their own personalities. We use a lot of sample pieces, remnants, and reclaimed fabric along with new fabric … Continue reading It’s good to see you!
…and about Jackie, and Boxy, and Dot. These are all names we’ve given to our bags over the years, usually in a random way named after a childhood friend, a son/nephew’s girlfriend, and our favourite dog. Just a bit of fun. Naming the Dot after our mother Dorothy (nicknamed Dot) wasn’t random, since she designed it so she could have hands-free access to her phone. … Continue reading We need to talk about Christina….
In Fulham, we’ve been collaborating with a local artist to produce a limited edition of Bledsoe’s popular walkabout bags and facemasks. Jane Bristowe creates stunning linocut prints that bring out the characters of animals, and we’ve worked with her to produce fabric from her amazingly characterful dog prints. This has been an organically evolving collaboration – the first for us at Bledsoe Bags, and so … Continue reading A new community collaboration
….but sometimes it is. Sometimes a bit of black and white and a spot of red brings some certainty to an uncertain world. We’ve made some beautiful sturdy bags (for going back to school and work) featuring black and white and red – backpacks, tote bags, and our handy walkabouts with matching facemask. Read more about our backpacks. Read more about our tote bags. Read … Continue reading It’s not always black and white….
Walking is a subversive activity. In his book Psychogeography, Merlin Coverley writes of ‘the democratic importance of the street-level perspective to be gained from walking the city and reconnecting with individual life’ – in contrast with the omniscient architect or planner viewing from above, the walker sees the totality from the street, ‘restoring the primacy of the street’. Being an urban explorer depends on a … Continue reading Go walkabout
It seems we’re now in a place, all over the world, where people are having to make their own individual and very personal risk assessments and decide for themselves what they’re willing to do in terms of being out in the world. Unless you’re in a re-locked down area (Leicester, Melbourne), the guidance about where and how far you can go, and with whom … Continue reading For the intrepid and the wary
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