Juliette Orton

When I have been talking to visitors at my Open Studios exhibition they have been surprised to learn that I studied Silversmithing & Jewellery for my degree (over 20 years ago!). I thought I might share with you one of the projects I did back then and hopefully you can see how it has influenced my work today. A trip to a dress rehearsal at the Royal Opera House and an instruction not to look at the paper whilst we drew the dancers (with the aim of showing movement) led to this sketch above. Back in the workshop, I developed my sketches into wire models (I still love using wire!) and then started to forge metal pieces to convey the curve and movement of the dancers. The image above is my first attempt of a metal candlestick inspired by the dancers. I developed this further and spent many hours forging metal in the workshop in order to produce the final silver candlestick shown below. I had a very muscular right arm due to all the hammering, forging, sold...

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'...

I spent some time at my Mum's in Sussex over Easter helping her sort through bits and pieces from our family history. She is thinking of moving house this year which means going through 25+ years of 'stuff'! We came across some real treasures such as the family bible from the 1800s which I had never seen before. There was a page for births, deaths and marriages with numerous entries in beautiful handwriting and a lot of details about my ancestors which were fascinating. It turns out that I am a descendant of the Clark family who produced Clark & Co's sewing threads in the 1800s and James Clark who invented the technique used to produce a spooled cotton thread (as opposed to skeins) which we know today as the cotton reel.    Mum also showed me this amazing picture of what looks like a painting of Charles I but is in fact an embroidery that was produced by a family member called Wright Battye (!) to demonstrate the superior quality of Clark & ...

I have been busy squirrelling away in preparation for the Designer Maker Fairs that are coming up and these are my latest additions to the range.  I have added these little beauties to my 'Emerging Bud' and 'Sea Garden' collections.

I managed to come by a big display unit this weekend which is fab for storing my work in and has really made the new space feel a lot more professional.   I can actually invite clients in without feeling shamed by the mess!

I had a meeting in London yesterday and took the opportunity to get off at Tower Hill and see the amazing ceramic poppy art installation at the Tower of London.  It is incredible to see the sheer volume on display and by 11th November there will be 888,246 poppies, one for each British and colonial death in WW1.  The exhibit is called 'Blood Swept Lands And Seas of Red'. The artist, Paul Cummins, said he had been inspired after reading a soldier's will. The installation will be dismantled following Armistice Day and the poppies will be sold for £25 each to raise an estimated £15m for six armed forces charities. 

This car belonged to my Dad, it is a Salmson. He passed away in 2012 having spent many hours tinkering away with it in the garage. There is something rather beautiful about the simplicity of its 1925 engine.  It was shown recently at the Goodwood Festival of speed and Rowan Atkinson enjoyed looking under the bonnet. Maybe one day it can be the inspiration for one of my new ranges......?!