About Betsy Benn

I grew up in East London, not really thinking about what I wanted to be when I was big, but I always, ALWAYS painted and doodled and crafted along with Tony Hart (gawd bless 'im). Then one of my teachers told my Mum I had a brain in my head, and that was it, I was going to be an academic! So I studied art and history and politics, unable to decide between the two loves of my live. Academia won out for a while and I did a history and politics degree at Keele University after a fruitless search for a uni anywhere in the country that taught history and art alongside each other.

Post studentdom I slipped into a career in the corporate world and enjoyed many years working in the events and hospitality sector, occasionally being allowed to design beautiful event invitations! I picked up photography as a hobby along the way which would sometimes pay for itself with the odd commission.

When my beautiful little boy was born it was time to make some decisions in life. Commuting and working away from home suddenly wasn't exciting anymore, but making my child and my family, handmade special gifts made me as pleased as punch. Best of all, everyone else was doubly pleased to receive these gifts and convinced me that my talents were worth pursuing. So, here we are, 2010 and launch of Betsy Benn. Hope you like it!

A little bit more Betsy

Is Betsy a Green Goddess?

Well, not yet a goddess, but we're aiming for the heavens!

We are committed to minimising our waste and maximising our recycling! So yes we print on both sides of the paper (if we need to print at all) and all scrap paper gets utilised as craft material for my three year old before it ever sees the recycling box. We also "upcycle". If in the process of making a print it gets damaged or spoilt, we turn it over and print our tea towel care instructions on the reverse, making very pretty label inserts! If the print is only marginally damaged on the edge, but still perfect in the body, then we'll sell it as a sample at a greatly reduced price - so keep an eye on our sample page.

We make no apologies for recycling packaging material that gets sent to us, to wrap products that we send to you. If for whatever reason you would prefer "virgin" packaging then please let us know in the special instructions.

We don't, at the moment, use vegetable based inks or print on recycled paper for our giclee prints for many technical reasons around white brightness, lightfast years and archival qualities. We design our prints to last a lifetime so need to be able to rely on the raw materials. But we promise to keep looking for a greener solution that ticks all our boxes. We even specifically designed our logo to be largely white to save on ink!

Our current paper supplier, Hahnemuhle, only use green power in their production plant, power that is produced using a variety of renewable energy sources. In doing so they prevent CO2 emissions of more than 3000 tonnes per year. They also support a number of environmental projects. Not bad going! For more information visit www.green-rooster.com

 Is Betsy a techno geek? 

Ah no - but she wishes she was. Instead we make do with having a techno geek in the house who inspires and tweaks and twitters and fixes! As such, you can be Betsy's friend on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. We'll announce new products, special offers and random musings along with the best of them.

We will maintain a customer database (not at all as scary as it sounds) and you can join or leave at any time simply by sending us an email to betsy@betsybenn.co.uk.  We'll use the info on that and from our website to learn a little bit more about what you like and then hopefully offer you more stuff you like; including limited time discount offers, previews of sales and news of new products. We will NEVER forward your information to anyone outside of our company for any purpose.

At the moment, postage in the UK is free for all customers - but postage abroad is done at cost. Please go through the checkout process for details or email me.

Love

Bxx