From Britain with Love

I originally trained as a fashion designer and ran several businesses in the Bristol and Bath area. I then did an MA and worked in Marketing for a while, which I hated! Whilst helping a friend renovate her cottage in Ireland I fell in love with the place and within months my now husband and I resigned from our jobs, sold up and moved there.

This rekindled my love of design and I was looking for an opportunity. Whilst making curtains from woollen blankets for the cottage to keep the drafts out, a friend from London encouraged me to make handbags. I had some blanket scraps so made her one from these. The rest is history...

I’m based in Co. Leitrim in rural North West Ireland and my business partner, Daniela Benson, is based in Bristol. Although, I’m currently working in Italy in order to explore the European market.

To make our handbags, we use wool tweed and blanket fabrics from traditional mills in Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales. Each bag has a generous spoonful of dried lavender, grown in The Burren in Southern Ireland, sewn into the lining before it is sealed.

You can watch the video below to find out more about how we work...

We use wool for the outer part of the bag, and each bag is then lined in cotton velvet or cord from an traditional English supplier. We then adorn the bags with handmade flowers which are made by other artisans in Devon. Some are crocheted from locally produced baby alpaca yarn, others are made from felt and we even use handmade ceramic buttons.

We use the type of industrial machinery that would be used in a factory in order to get a professional finish, but it is very much a handmade product and each bag is made by Daniela and me. Our COW leather handbag range is also made by hand in England.

The most popular products vary from season to season. There is normally a favourite cloth which outsells all the others. This season it is an apple green Harris Tweed. In our COW leather range, our red leather Matilda Bag has been the most popular.

The best thing about what I do is the freedom to work how and when I like. Saying that, I work seven days per week and sometimes long hours but I love it. Moving to Italy for a while has meant I can take regular breaks and lie in my favourite vintage floral print hammock and think about new ideas and techniques, so you see it really is research!

Both Daniela and I are passionate about making our products in England and Ireland because we hate the cheap, throw away culture of disposable clothing and accessories. We like the traditional, handmade element we can achieve by doing it ourselves. We will never be rich this way but at least we enjoy it and what we do is very ethical.

One of my proudest moments was winning the Country Living Magazine Rural Business Woman of the Year some years back. I was delighted to be nominated but when I won I could not believe it. I also had one of my bags purchased by the handbag museum in Amsterdam as part of their 'Designers of the 21st Century' exhibition.

We stock around 100 shops throughout England, Ireland, the US and Europe. They are a mixture of contemporary craft, lifestyle, fashion accessory shops and museums and galleries. Both the design museum in Paris and the National Museum of Dublin stock our work. You can also buy our COW lether range in Dublin airport.

We sell through our website www.hopeandbenson.com and on www.notonthehighsteet.com, and I also sell on my own website www.angelahope.com.

I love nice things for my home, items that are beautiful and also have a purpose. I use my floral mug by Bristol designer Hanne Rysgaard daily. I have a range of beautiful porcelain vessels which I use for tealights when I bathe by ceramicist Peter Fulop and Irish based Sarah Flynn.

I am also surrounded by beautiful handmade painted furniture (based on old French and Irish designs) made by my carpenter husband Martin Collingbourne from Arbor. I am very lucky, I only need to say I would like a beautiful wooden settle in the Ingresso (Italian for entrance hall) and it appears in an array of muted grey tones!

At home I shop at the local farmers market in Manorhamilton and we grow a lot of our own veg. I also love to use soaps and other products from Pringle & Fairweather, which are handmade in Cumbria.

My favourite place to holiday in Britain is the Lake District, we normally camp in small farm campsites and walk during the day. However, Co. Leitrim, Ireland where we live is by far the best place. Very similar to the Lake District but relatively undiscovered. You can walk on white sandy beaches for hours and not see another soul. It is also a great place for horse riding.

Whilst in Italy I love to relax on the aforementioned hammock! However, in Ireland, sitting on the small deck (built by guess who!) outside my studio with a cup of coffee on one of the rare sunny days is my favourite. During the evening I relax in front of a log fire in our tiny lounge with a glass of red wine!