Bethan  trained in fashion and specialized in shoe design after winning a Fellowship to study shoe design and manufacture at the University of Northampton. Following a career as a designer in the clothing industry she became a professional textile artist. She has won international awards for her work - twice winning an Eisteddfod prize and has exhibited her work worldwide, most recently with Art Textiles: Made in Britain in Tokyo, Japan 2021.

Her work can be found in private and public collections including that of the Museum of Art and Design (MAD), New York, USA.

 

In 1984 she was a cofounder of The Makers Guild in Wales and was instrumental in setting up the Craft Centre gallery at the Old Library, Cardiff that led on to their flagship gallery Crafts in the Bay, the Flourish, Cardiff Bay.

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In 1986 she was one of six who set up and ran Makers Gallery, Cowbridge, leaving in 1991 to set up the cooperative Oriel Makers Gallery, Roath Park, Cardiff.

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In 1999 she was principal founder of the Welsh textile art group, Fibre Art Wales, under her leadership the group exhibited throughout the UK and twice in the USA.  She was an International judge for Quilt Expo 2009 in Switzerland and has also been a selector for Welsh Artist of the Year at St David's Hall, Cardiff, the Eisteddfod and many art and textile based groups.

 

Bethan has been an active member of, and has exhibited with the American group, Studio Art Quilt Associates, and also the international groups; New Fibre Art and Quilt Art, Fibre Art Wales, The Society of Designer Craftsmen, Arts in the Tawe Valley and Art Textiles Made in Britain.  She has published two books – ‘Instinctive Quilt Art’ - Batsford Publishing and ‘Vibrant Quilt Collage’ by the American company Interweave Press.

 

Bethan moved back to her hometown of Neath in 2012 and opened Queen Street Gallery in 2018.