Up With The Lark And

There is an inbuilt dissatisfaction that drives most entrepreneurs. But does this inhibit a critical element of celebration and reflection? We ask Tabi Jackson Gee founder of Them Outdoors how she feels one year after launch. 

Welcome to Up With The Lark And, a podcast for creative entrepreneurs hosted by me, Calandre Orton. 

Entrepreneurs are driven. They want to do better, push things on, develop, learn, explore the next material or the next nation, they want to know their audience better and offer them more. But does this inhibit a critical element of celebration and reflection? Does the drive it takes to run a business reduce fulfilment or satisfaction of the experience, the process, the adventure? Life’s moments of celebration are far more closely observed. The wedding industry and children’s birthday parties show us this in bright technicolour. But what about in business. How can we celebrate? How can we review, critique, evolve but also pat ourselves on the back along the way? The first year, the first hire, the first VAT return, the first big turnover number, the first time you are able to pay yourself properly. 

Tabi Jackson Gee is a gardening polymath. She is a garden designer, writer and now founder of Them Outdoors, An online gallery of garden furniture, bringing together a carefully selected group of creatives working in an exciting variety of crafts and materials. And it is Them Outdoors that we will explore today. Recently celebrating its first birthday, it struck me as a wonderful opportunity to consider that balance of critique and celebration, striving and satisfaction. We will hear about the idea, getting it to launch, the blend of different disciplines and what the second year might hold. 

Them Outdoors 
Craft Week at The Garden Museum

Patrick Williams, alongside his wife Neri, founded the interior design practice Berdoulat. In this conversation we explore his first book: The House Rules. It is part memoir, part point of view, part a plea for the house to rule. It is something to treasure as an object and as a window into Patrick’s mind. In this episode, we are fortunate enough to be sitting right at the heart of Patrick and Neri’s home in Bath where their shop and workspace are also to be found. 

I think that it is a safe assumption that anyone who makes, creates, designs is a keen observer. They are porous to the world around them. They notice. They absorb. A gift and a ritual all entwined. It is our good luck in this episode to closely observe one such observer. And whilst I am sure that Patrick observes cutlery and spectacles, cloud formations and apples, it is the observation of buildings that pre-occupies him. The work of Berdoulat is about homes, houses, spaces and places and some really rather wonderful furniture too. They excavate stories, eschew excess and breathe life into buildings. Quietly and with thoughtful intention. 

In this conversation, we will explore where the idea to write the book came from, the highs and lows of the writing process, the impact of the building within which it was created, the selection of imagery, the design of the book and why there just had to be 'another spoonful'. 

I am very grateful indeed to have worked with Holly Fisher on this exploration of sonic identity. She is the most excellent producer indeed. 

Berdoulat
The House Rules

A conversation with Sarah Peake, founder of interior design practice Studio Peake. Sarah's creative confidence and courage, independence of thought, work ethic and grit mean that she is admired far and wide by clients and the interior design industry alike. 

Welcome to the Up With The Lark 'Breakfast With' series. It is an opportunity to start your day alongside creatives I admire and consider to be ‘up with the lark’ sharing their thought for the day. We explore ideas about important teachers, places that inspire, the role of luck, originality and business lessons learnt over the perfect breakfast.

Sarah's references, inspirations and outlook are engaging, original and energetic. It is a wonderful insight into a designer and design studio. Every conversation I have had with Sarah entices action. This one certainly does. 

Studio Peake: www.studiopeake.com

A conversation with Imogen Royall, co-founder of Nothern Pasta Co. A case study in doing simple things well and with determination and joy. 

Welcome to Up With The Lark And, a podcast and substack for creative entrepreneurs hosted by me, Calandre Orton. I am a business advisor in the arts and creative industries and have always worked at the intersection of the creative and the commercial.

For me, being “Up With The Lark” is all about starting a new day well. My approach to creative entrepreneurship is to embrace new ideas, new beginnings, new growth, new plans and new perspectives. And so as an early riser and lover of breakfast, I offer this series entitled ‘Breakfast With’. It an opportunity to start your day alongside creatives I admire and consider to be ‘up with the lark’ sharing their thought for the day. We will explore ideas about important teachers, places that inspire, the role of luck, originality and business lessons learnt over the perfect breakfast.

Today, we are joined by Imogen Royal co-founder of Northern Pasta Co. Their story acts as a case study for many of my favourite themes. The first is that it is a tale of doing simple things well, really really well. Secondly, it’s about seeing and understanding a gap in the market and dancing your way into it. And finally, joyfully, packaging. Oh how I love excellent packaging. Imogen has wonderful wisdom to share. I do hope that you enjoy it.

Northern Pasta Co: www.northernpasta.co.uk

In this special episode we are joined by British painter Emily Ponsonby to explore the importance, the relevance, the power of place - here you work, where you exhibit, where you travel, where your work finds home.

Before we go any further, if you aren’t familiar with her work I really would encourage you to take a moment to look her up here so that you can have her work in your mind’s eye. 

The work of Emily Ponsonby is an invitation. It is an invitation to remain still. It is something revealed and something hidden. It is onion layers making your eyes sting, leaving the board littered with skins both crisp and yielding. Once seen, these captures of togetherness remain. I want to pod peas and hear the conversation. I want to be in the picture not stood in front of it, an outsider to its beeswax scrapings. 'Place' sings from the canvas and from Emily’s story.
 
It would be easy to focus on the life of an artist as one about looking and telling stories and truths and one of canvas and paint and technique. We could happily, and fruitfully, spend our time wondering how Emily elicits life from the page but, for me, the commercial side creeps in. Working with galleries, applying for residencies, pricing your work. It all has a part to play. I have known Emily for some time and have watched her navigate both the work itself and the commercial side of things with energy and honesty, with courage and with trepidation. We all have a great deal to learn from her.
 
And so, let’s explore the settings within her work, her studio space, her travel and explorations, where her work ends up and the importance of her latest exhibition, A Warm Life Through Butter at Gillian Jason Gallery. 

Emily Ponsonby
Gillian Jason Gallery 
Up With The Lark