Bledsoe & Bristowe Lobster Bags

I couldn’t have been more happy when Margaret, at Bledsoe Bags, told me she’d fallen in love with my Lobster linocut and asked me if this could this be our next collaboration. With Ruth’s help at Oliver, Tigwell & Brown, I prepared my lobster image for printing.

Before we knew it, Prinfab sent us samples of how the lobster would look as a repeat image on fabric.

Margaret then expertly got to work to design four types of bags:

Toiletry bag set £35
Walkabout phone bag £30
Gadget bag £25
Pencil case £20

I particularly love the seascape lining Margaret has chosen for the gadget bag and pencil case.

Margaret and I like to give a proportion of our profits to charity and Margaret had the great idea of giving 10% to The National Lobster Hatchery in Cornwall who are committed to creating a sustainable environment for The European Lobster as well as conducting valuable marine research. One fact which stands out for me on their website is:

A female lobster can carry in the region of 20,000 eggs under their abdomen, however only one of these is expected to survive in the wild. With skilful and careful application of modern technology we can improve this survival rate by about 1000 times!

Bledsoe Bags initially launched The Bledsoe & Bristowe Lobster Bags series at the end of October, where they went down well.

Since the London launch, Margaret has travelled with them to Cabbagetown, Atlanta to take part in the Chomp And Stomp festival there. Margaret’s sister Susan, the other half of the Bledsoe bags duo, also took the lobster bags along to the Craft Crawl in Morningside, Atlanta. It was wonderful for me to think of them travelling all the way to Atlanta.

On returning from Atlanta, the bags have been to the Fulham Palace Christmas Market and were at the November Couture Collective open day in the Fulham Road. It’s been a surreal lobster bag whirlwind!