Juliette Orton

I do love natural textures, in fact I think I might be slightly obsessed about them! I have just been looking back at some photos and found quite a few that I still find inspirational. Lichen on a stick Watermarks in the sand Pebbles on the beach Sand on slate Fabulous dried flowerhead Leaf watermarks left on the patio Frozen leaf layers 'Marian's Marvel' at RHS Wisley more sand ridges left by the tide It's amazing what you ca n capture on camera, I certainly wouldn't call myself a photographer but I do use photographs a lot in my initial rese arch . I t ry to hang on to any interesting photos as you never know when they will come in handy.   julietteodesigns.co.uk julietteorton.blogspot.co.uk facebook.com/julietteodesigns twitter.com/julietteorton 

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'...