Julian Askham
by Brenda Ross
Combine a love of gardening with metal working skills, and what do you get? Metal "sculptures" for the garden, in the case of Julian Askham of Cambridgeshire.
The idea started through his part-time gardening work, when a client commissioned him to make a piece for a quiet corner of the garden almost enclosed by tall hedges. The piece took three months to make, with each of its six rings marking the height of the family's children at the time. The sculpture had to be sturdy enough to withstand the children playing in the garden too, so its copper base is concreted in and the copper rings revolve around a frame of stainless steel. Each ring has two brass plates on its edge, etched with personal details such as the child's initials, date of birth, star sign, etc. The rings can be moved individually on their vertical axis to change the effect, but they are not light enough to blow in the wind.
Julian has received another commission for a smaller piece, a compass sphere, also through someone he worked with, and he is eager for more.
"I want the client to approach me with ideas," he says, "so I can get to know them and make the piece specially for them, as a one-off, rather than producing batches and then selling them."
As this issue of Craftsman is published, Julian and a group of fellow designers will be exhibiting prototypes of other products for outdoor use, at Designersblock, a satellite exhibition of the Milan Furniture Fair that shows the work of international design newcomers. Their "Reality TV-Dinner for Two" (see panel on facing page) is a novel idea from the group of six who bring together a variety of craft skills, including furniture making, jewellery, millinery, silversmithing, metalworking and industrial design. Formed towards the end of 2003 and calling themselves Not a Toy Society, they want to promote and encourage one another as individuals, as well as using their combined skills to come up with ideas and products, and then share the cost of exhibiting and promoting them.
"You can get stagnant sitting with a sketchbook on your own or in your own workshop," says Julian. "It is easy to get despondent or to approach something in the wrong way. As a group we bounce ideas off one another."
Their common aim is to create "objects and concepts that can be fun but have a lasting appeal and quality, producing work that we can justify and that is socially responsible".
Their "Reality TV-Dinner" concept certainly fulfils that, and when they have designed pieces and made prototypes, if these arouse interest they hope to find others to make the components, while they retain ownership, so they can concentrate on designing rather than producing the same items over and over again.
All the members of the group were students at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College, High Wycombe, where Julian studied for a BA in designed metalwork and jewellery, after studying art and design at Cambridge Regional College. He specialised in metalwork rather than jewellery, preferring to design and make functional items.
"Decoration is not high on my list; function comes first," he explains. "I am influenced by geometric shapes and clean lines, and by the designs and theories of Bauhaus." This early twentieth-century German school of architecture and applied arts worked to the principle of functionalism and truth to materials, and their motto of "form follows function" is the way Julian works too. "The geometry of it is how it starts. I think of the function, then come up with the form. I sketch the designs on paper, then make the shapes."
"At college I made things I would like to own," he says, "and I am not really into jewellery." He designed and made a set of cutlery in which the pieces will stack on top of one another, and a picnic set of knife, fork and spoon that clip together in an ingenious way, and fit into a leather pouch. This was chosen to appear in Elle Decoration magazine in 2002. It shows his flair for adding an unusual touch to the most basic everyday items. A teapot, salt and pepper pots or even a paper knife all become attractive and unusual items in his designer hands.
In 2001, while at college, he took part in a New Designers exhibition at the Business Design Centre in Islington, London, "We were working towards this on the course. At the end of the course some students went on to study for MAs, but I didn't as I wanted to start earning a living."
He took his work to two craft events but found the visitors were not the right audience for his products. The price he has to charge to cover the cost of making the picnic cutlery, for example, puts it out of reach of an everyday purchase and suitable only for a special gift.
He returned to live with his family in Cambridgeshire and worked as a "labourer" for the builder renovating a dilapidated farmhouse his parents had bought. Now finished, the house has sweeping views across the fens outside Waterbeach, north-east of Cambridge, and work is continuing on the outbuildings.
Julian also started gardening work, but in the evenings he was still pursuing his metalwork, and in fact this skill runs in the family. For around 20 years his father has been making scientific instruments for Cambridge University, working mainly in metal - milling and lathing. As this is precision work he enjoys working with Julian sometimes on more creative metalwork. At the moment they share a small improvised "shack" in the garden, while one of the barns is refurbished as a workshop.
Julian uses mainly copper and brass for outdoor pieces, but has also worked in stainless steel, aluminium and titanium. As well as batch-producing cutlery and other functional objects for galleries and exhibitions, he has most recently worked on a commissioned pewter fruit bowl and a line of jewellery for a local retailer.
In addition to the 2-3 days a week gardening, Julian is taking an evening-class course in general horticulture and garden design.
"I am doing that for my own benefit," he says, "for my own garden when I get it, and because I enjoy it."
In the future Julian would like to exhibit at the Chelsea Flower Show as a garden sculptor, but would continue making other items too. "I don't like to be 100% specific about what I do. I can turn my hand to anything in metalwork. I like commissions but I also like making things in batches - but craft orientated as opposed to machine made."
