York Documentary Photography: Jewellery Designer Charmian Ottaway

This shoot was part of the ‘We make: We Do’ documentary photography series in collaboration with United by Design.  We’ll be launching a website soon to showcase the great people we’ve been working with so watch this space.

Charmian Ottaway is a super talented jewellery designer based in York.  My favourite element of this series of commissions is the view it gives into people’s daily working lives and environments.  Charmian works from a small outhouse in her garden creating both unique bespoke pieces as well as offering repair work.  The images document a sense of environment as well as the tools and processes involved in ring making.  As well as how incredibly detailed Charmian’s work is it was fascinating to document how physically demanding and messy the work is too.

Charmian will be exhibiting at the 2014 York Open Studios