Bettyjoy Design Studio

“I grew up in a small town the North Pennines in England which is a very wild place with harsh winters where we were cut off from the outside world for weeks at a time as kids.  My childhood was spent outdoors, down at the river building dens or looking for birds eggs and feathers to put in my nature journal. My mum owned a little craft gallery in our town and I used to help her out and spent a lot of time surrounded by art and crafts.  I think both of those experiences have shaped my career and the designs that I create which are inspired by my childhood.

I originally trained as a fashion designer and worked in that industry in London for a few years before moving back up North and leaving my fashion career behind. I have had many jobs in the last 10 years (from Teaching Assistant, Admin worker, TV presenter, workshop facilitator) but after the birth of my daughter I decided I needed to focus on the one thing I really wanted to do, which was draw and make patterns. The problem was I didn’t have the skills to create the designs I wanted to, or any business knowledge, so I spent two years trying to teach myself Illustrator and took lots of surface pattern courses and it has finally paid off as I now have an agent to represent my work in the UK and USA, which I never could have imagined a year ago.

I am now creating work for a range of uses from fabric to wall vinyls and childrens wear and am always looking for new opportunities to license and sell my work.”

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