Up With The Lark And

Tess Newall is a decorative artist famed for her murals and whimsical sense of style. In this episode, we explore the journey from maker to founder, a challenging and rewarding adventure.

Welcome to Up With The Lark And, a podcast for creative entrepreneurs hosted by me, Calandre Orton. In this episode, we explore someone we feel we know and a concept we think we fully grasp. I wonder if perhaps we need to look afresh at both.

Tess Newall is a decorative artist famed for her murals adorning the most wonderful spaces and places. Her work finds life on surfaces in castles and townhouses, hotels and orangeries across the globe. She has worked with an extraordinary list of interior designers, brands and enterprises. It seems the set designer in her continues to shine through. And if that was not enough, she has wallpaper, fabric and furnishings to her name as well. Vision, grit and charm appear to be the cornerstones of her success. Each is important and admirable; together, they are potent.

We feel we know her. We have enjoyed seeing her beautiful, whimsical, Brambly Hedge-meets-modern-day-Charleston work of art of a home. We marvel at her delightful trio of children, bedecked in nighties and wellies. We admire, in awe, the commitment and hard work Tess clearly puts in. But there is always so much more to a creative enterprise than meets the eye.

I suspect Tess is an iceberg, and I look forward to exploring the depths today.And what will we be ruminating on? The "build the aeroplane as you fly the aeroplane" life that is that of the maker or artist turned entrepreneur.

So many talented makers and artists working across fabric, paint, wood, metal, mosaic and ceramics then find themselves running businesses. And with it comes an arduous and rewarding adventure with its own specific set of challenges. Firstly, how do you know that you are suited to the life of a maker or artist? When can you tell that there is enough demand to start a business? What is the key to building a successful brand alongside that business? How can you set the culture as you build a team? And, most importantly, how do you protect, nurture and evolve your creative self?

So welcome to Up With The Lark And, Tess Newall.

A love letter to leather - its beauty, its craft, its supply, its value - with Sara Grady and Alice Robinson, founders of British Pasture Leather. 

Curiosity about the supply chain is always to be applauded. Whether we are buying a jumper, a car or a three course meal, it is good and right to consider where things have come from. However, even in this highly connected world, we are too often divorced from the truth about production, And with the best will in the world, it is all too easy to allow our passions and expertise to fall into silos. Sometimes we forget to join the dots. And that is to our detriment. 

So in this episode, I am delighted to be able to meet two talented and determined souls who are doing just that. Alice Robinson and Sara Grady are the co-founders of British Pasture Leather.  They offer a new model for leather production and work to redefine leather as it truly is: an agricultural product shaped by land stewardship. 

We are going to explore assumptions made about leather, the narrative that they are working to change, setting the course for a vision and the nitty gritty of following it through, what success looks like when you are working on change and not just profit, a fantastic recent project with Mulberry and what the future holds. 

British Pasture Leather

We are, it seems, fixated on the new, newness, what's new. A discussion with Rob Abrahms, co-founder of Coat Paints, on the pressure of newness. 

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

We are, it seems, fixated with the new, newness, what’s new. Trends flurry by in weeks, the what’s new button on websites is pressed with an unquenchable thirst and we are all always asking, what’s next? I recently read The Good Ancestor by Roman Krznaric. In it he discusses the marshmallow brain and the acorn brain. Short term satisfaction versus long term thinking. A good challenge for us all to consider how to explore both, blend, mix, combine and when to enjoy the marshmallow or when to invest in the acorn. 

To explore this conundrum is Rob Abrahms co-founder of Coat Paints. I am sure that you are familiar with their open, straightforward, practical and cheering approach to paint and colour. Everyone is welcome. Every style is welcome. Every architectural era is welcome. Every story is welcome. It seems a great business from which to consider this. Every paint company must need to explore new colours, new finishes, fashions and trends espeically as paint so easily tranforms spaces and places and colour changes how we live and feel in our environment. 

So why is newness so powerful? When does the endless colour list go too far? How can we listen to customers and feedback effectively? When do we need to slow down? What impact does BCorp status have? And how can we all re-evaluate ’newness’ and its value in our own enterprises?

Coat Paints

Exploring what it means to be the CEO with Claire German, CEO of Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour. What does it mean? How does it work well? How do you know that you are ready to hire a CEO?

Welcome to Up With The Lark And, a podcast for creative entpreneurs hosted by me Calandre Orton. Up With The Lark is all about the intersection of creativity and commerce, making and profit, designing and selling. It is a space filled with potential and ideas and contradicitions and challenges. 

Today’s guest personifies this particular adventure. Claire German is the CEO of Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour. This is a place deeply significant in the world of interior design - it is a space for display, for conversation, for gathering, for selling and for community. 

Claire has been in this role since 2010 and has captained the ship to new shores - Focus, London Design Week and the WOW!house exhibition to name a few. At the recent press launch of the WOW!house 2026, I asked guests what their experience and perception of Claire was. The answer was clear - this is a lady who has big ideas and then makes them happen with great communication, energy and warmth. Easy to have great ideas but it’s powerful to make them happen. And so, it is clear that we all have a lot to learn from Claire.

Today we are going to explore a specific theme - that of the role of CEO. Whether you are at your kitchen table alone, managing a small team of freelancers or leading a hierarchy of employees, the skills of a CEO are pertinent. We will consider Claire’s journey to the role, what her job actually entails, the specific experience of leading a creative business, enacting her vision, leading a team and what the future holds. 

Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour
WOW!house

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