How to found a business on holiday! The year was 2009, when on a sunny summer’s day in Canada Jane Langley decided to found a new business. Hold on a sec. Canada? Blue Patch is all about sustainable British and Irish brands. Why Canada? Well, gentle reader, a nice holiday can do wonders for the […]
Last year, in September, we celebrated the 5th anniversary of our launch. In business years (and dog years), 5 years is significant. We’ve had some great successes and also have had to navigate some huge learning curves along the way. Our goal has always been to be a platform where British sustainable businesses can come […]
Have we reached boiling point? Today’s hyper-competitive economy makes running a business stressful and risky. Cost cutting to ‘remain in the game’ means the quality of products and services may be compromised and environmental negligence, long work hours and financial risk affect wellbeing – we’re burning out! Time for a new approach to business […]
Have you ever wondered why Jane Langley began Bluepatch.org? Jane Langley is an artist, environmentalist and founder of the social enterprise Blue Patch, Britain’s sustainable marketplace, brimming with beautiful things made by people who share a vision for a brighter world. Jane attended Camberwell, Royal College of Art, and taught at City and Guilds […]
We want to send out a HUGE thank you to everyone who joined us in the Blue Patch tent last Saturday! Our marquee at the Herne Hill Christmas Fair was home to some of the best ethical, handmade products in the British Isles and we were proud to host such amazing talents. The London cycling […]
September 28th was a day of celebrations at the Herne Hill Market. Our video gives a flavour of the energy and excitement of the event. Local Italian cook Giuseppina Calcara and Toto from Home Cooking SE24 got us off to a delicious start with their cookery workshop ‘Gnocchi your socks off’ entertaining and educating mini cooks, complete with […]
We would love to see you at the Blue Patch launch at Herne Hill Market, Sunday 28th September for a day of fun, activities and competitions, plus our Wonderful World of Blue Patch show on the Stage at 2:30. Time 10am – 4pm, Railton Road, Herne Hill London SE24 0JW. Transport: bus (or 10 […]
William Morris – master of interlacing tendrils and blooms – is my dream date. This visionary man’s ectoplasm is currently swirling about our ankles in the Blue Patch office, driving our team onwards – his values a near perfect match to our own. With William cheering us on from the floor boards, we decided it was high […]
Things are looking up! My trip to Wales and the latest Blue Patch members intertwine in this blog, along with an explanation of our company’s purpose to foster a healthy economy, support community, build in resourcefulness and help restore the health of our eco-system. This burst of positivism is illustrated by human catapults Sapphire Groove, […]
The Lambeth Country Show was massive! At a conservative guess 200,000 people swarmed across the green and pleasant lands of Brockwell Park, south London and partied like crazy for two days. The sun shone, the sweat rolled, music blasted and finally at 5pm on Sunday the rain fell and fell like an entire reservoir was tipped […]
We had celebrations at Blue Patch this week! Alberto our Business and Marketing graduate from Madrid, has been awarded the highly sought after EU Leonardo Da Vinci fund to work with Blue Patch. Chantelle Senior is no longer working at Blue Patch, however she’s very much a part of the family (we all miss […]
Come and explore Blue Patch our ethical directory for UK hand made products and services at the Lambeth Country Show this weekend, Brockwell Park, south London. Head for the back of tent P4 (near the picnic area) where Blue Patch teamsters, Emma, Rachael, Julia, Sujesh, Alberto and Jane will be giving you a taste of […]
Cockpit Arts 18 – 22 Creekside, Deptford, south London, has to be the place to go for collectors, fans and connoisseurs of contemporary crafts. A couple of times a year they throw open the studio doors and invite the public in to relish a treasure trove of high quality and beautiful things. We spent 5 hours there one […]
On a glorious sunny morning Emma, Rachael, Julia and I headed over to Brick Lane in east London to Meet the Manufacturer, a trade fair bringing together the UK’s ‘hard to pin down’ manufacturers. Focusing on textiles, the fair mounted by Kate Hills of Make it British, was in the perfect area, from the Huguenot […]
On a rain sodden morning in Euston, I washed up at the Future Foundation’s 2014 marketing conference ‘Not Here To Come Second’. Eloquent and ahead of the game, Futurites pulled me through a whirlpool of Big Data and got me thinking about hashtags – a lot. I filled my tatty exercise book (@IKeepItReal – #SmartPhoneImean). […]
Thursday 29th of May and ‘The Wise Creative’ landed. Everyone climbed aboard starship ethical and off we went for an evening of glorious indulgence, accompanied by fantastic UK designed, cut, stitched, hemmed, rolled and fizzed up brands. The Wise Creative are briefly gathered under one collaborative roof at no 10A Blandford Street, London W1, a […]
The Guardian Sustainable Business Awards 2014 with Fair Quinoa Vodka ‘expresso’ cocktails flowing, was the perfect opportunity to meet and share stories with ‘the eco-converted’. Bruce from Abundance Generation won the Net Positive Innovation Award – Go Bruce! I also had a chat with Katie from the Fairtrade Foundation about how they work with very […]
Weekend no 2 at the Artist’s Open House in south east London yielded more wonderful things. Hidden at the end of a long, thin garden in Forest Hill is Lydia Brenchley’s shed. Step inside and you discover the artist has been occupied with trees, tracing the complex patterns of leaves, light and branches, rendering them […]
The Dulwich Festival’s Artist’s Open House 2014 offers a fantastic opportunity to enter the discreet world of south east London’s creative community. Open over two weekends, you can check out what you fancy via their online catalogue, or you can pick up an illustrated catalogues from local cafes, libraries, bookshops and – well almost everywhere, […]
My day out at Natural & Organic Products, held at Olympia (it’s moving to Excel for 2015) begun with a stirring talk by the charismatic and environmentally minded business man Craig Sams, covering the state of the world, the economics of sustainability and how things are changing for the better – and by making the effort to be informed consumers […]
Supporting local enterprises, appreciating British produce and encouraging others to get dirty in their kitchens is a passion of Tasty Titbits. So here is a little sneak peak into the Tasty Titbits kitchen. A few Sundays back, in traditional Caribbean style, my parents invited my Uncle Johnny and his family to dinner. Sunday dinners are […]
Jim and I don’t get away much because it’s not that easy leaving teenagers and a miniature dachshund to their own devices. Haunted by headlines ‘Running tap creates third Herne Hill flood’, ‘Terraced house collapses under weight of Facebook rave’ and ‘Sausage dog runs amuck in suburbia’ we trundled off to the station, destination Bath to ‘take the […]
Tasty Titbits has been out and about eating and baking cakes of all sorts over winter. Now spring has officially arrived it’s time to kick back, enjoy the sunshine, appreciate the blossoming flowers and enjoy some tasting of the liquid kind. What better way to feed our thirst, but to visit some local East London […]
The Blue Patch team are going to be popping up all over the country hunting for great design, so for inspiration and direction Julia (painter of flowers and recently, cobwebs) and I went to ‘Hello, My Name is Paul Smith’. This exhibition on one of our favourite British fashion designers, is at the Design Museum, London. It runs […]
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