Meet the maker Bettie Couson

I live in West Sussex with my partner and 2 teenage children. I work as a special needs teaching assistant in a special school. I mainly work with primary aged children. Over the last 11 years I have worked in schols and mostly have had a real blast. Children make you think on how you live, you thoughts and how you deal with things because they are there watching you and copying the things you do. Here is my inspiration. Since being diagonsed with Lupus I have had to curtail my activites somewhat and that is when crafting came into my life and my enjoyment of life and contentment has spriraled. I spend a few hours each day, designing and making new products and they range from cards, gift bgas and boxes to fabric goods. In an age where we need to think a little more about how we spend our money I think there is more thought given to personal, unique and quality products. We also need to think about what we throw out, do we need to throw some of the stuff out, or can we change the use of it by upcycling? This is what I love to do as it gives me a real challenge to come up with something new and beautiful within the confines of the item I am upcycling. i am a big believer in buying local or British so I try and make sure that my stock that I use is from retailers who I know in my own area, I think it gives my products a kind of "organic feel" i.e. I know everything about the things that that goes into my products.