Juliette Orton

I  had such a busy week last week what with giving a talk to Chiltern Textiles Group on Monday, teaching stressed GCSE and A-level students Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday and loading up my car to the brim for an exhibition on Friday - all with a stinking cold! I was so relieved to actually get to my Mums house in Sussex on Friday afternoon when I could just exhale. By popular demand I was asked to do an Open House Art Exhibition in my Mums 250+ year old cottage in West Sussex - certainly a change from the clean lines of most galleries! There was a garage sale outside too with various pieces of architectural salvage and knick knacks so there was plenty to see. Excuse the dark photo but unfortunately it was quite cloudy in Sussex last weekend - and very cold. This chocolate box cottage has a beautiful setting with a big garden and a lot of sheds full of stuff that needs clearing (25 years worth!).          ...

I recently gave a talk to the Bedford Embroiderers' Guild and as I presented my sketchbooks and artworks many of the attendees admitted that they just didn't know where to start with new ideas.  I explained how I went about it and how sometimes inspiration can come from the most unexpected places - such as a cup of coffee! In this instance I just loved the shapes that the milk foam formed (or 'Latte Art' as those in the know call it apparently!) and as I am a lover of nature instantly saw an emerging bud with beautifully veined leaves. This led me to open my sketchbook and start drawing and developing the shapes. I loved the flowing forms and started to think of different media that I could use to explore them further. I used wire to recreate the shapes and bound threads and papers around them to add colour and texture. I also used scrunched up magazine pages (with floral images) and machine stitching to present the shapes in another way. ...

Having taken part in several Open Studio events, I have come to realise how much people do like to look at a sketchbook. I find creating the books a hugely enjoyable process and I'm still referring back to and using some of the imagery from the ones I did some 25 years ago! In this post I thought I would give you a quick flick through my 'Marine Life' book which is a more recent creation and helped to inspire my 'Shoal' and 'Sea Garden' ranges. Once I've chosen a theme I generally do a mind map and look at all the different areas I could explore within that theme. Over the next 5-10 pages I play around with different images, textures, media and scale to explore the possibilities. I also like to focus on a few artists or designers that inspire me too and may relate to my theme. I might do a few pages combining their style with mine and my theme and see what happens. I recently wrote an article for 'Workshop on the Web'...