I was always making things, painting and drawing from a very young age, there was almost never any doubt that I was going to ‘do’ art, and after school, I trained in Fine Art – painting (BA Hons) at Bath School of Art, taught in a Sixth Form College in Berkshire and have worked as an Art & Design senior moderator and assessment associate for Edexcel for the past 21 years and more recently was an educational consultant at a prestigious school in China
Although painting was the direction I originally took, I began working with metal and making jewellery more than 15 years ago. Now I split my time between my jewellery making, painting, printmaking and taking on portrait commissions.
All of my work imparts my true love of vibrant colour and texture and my jewellery pieces take their inspiration from the archaeological pieces I marvelled at and found in museums when I was a child and they generally evolve in a chanced and very organic way. They aspire to having a ‘just dug up’ look, which is hopefully miles away from looking machine manufactured with most of my pieces being one-offs. With my portraiture, colour also plays a dominant role and I try to include personal symbolisms, which have some meaning to the subject. I usually carry out a consultation prior to undertaking any jewellery or painting commission work and what I love is to tailor pieces to suit each individual client, whether it is a jewellery item or a painting each commission has its own story.
Building on my educational experience I am running a workshop programme from my shared studio space at The Fold (Studio 4) to give tasters of different disciplines. These range from a jewellery set, which comprise: lost wax ring making, lost wax pendant making, stacking rings and bangles. Painting workshops – an introduction to oils and relief printing workshop where a basic design can be turned into a stamp.
My workshops are continuously evolving and new ideas are being developed. More information can be found on The Fold website or on my own website - Fitilbury.com