[1][2] At the RCA she studied in the design department under W. R. Lethaby and was taught calligraphy by Edward Johnston, embroidery by Grace Christie and pottery by Richard Lunn.
No consistent attempt appears to have been made to deal with the interpretation of the contemporary world in design and execution... the research work towards the discovery of new subject matter and new treatment, so noticeable on the Continent, seem to have been wanting.
Among her students were Quentin Bell,[4] William Newland, Gordon Baldwin, Ruth Duckworth, Alan Caiger-Smith, Margaret Hine, Kenneth Clark, Ann Wynn-Reeves, Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie, Stella Rebecca Crofts, Ursula Mommens, Ray Finch and Valentinos Charalambous.
At the Paris Expo (the International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts) in 1925 Billington was awarded Bronze for her stained glass ‘St Joan’.
Her book The Art of the Potter (1937), was the first to relate contemporary craft practice to its historical context and in The Technique of Pottery (1962) she gave a comprehensive account of different methods of working.