Introducing our penultimate maker in our meet the maker series… Juliana Futter.
Juliana Futter studied on the Graphic and Media pathway at London College of Communication, specialising in illustration. Since graduating, Juliana has founded BURN, a range of candles and accessories playing with shape and colour. Her personal work revolves around narratives and themes. These include mythology, devotional spaces, sexuality, and its ongoing relationship to the feminine image.
We spoke to Juliana about her work, inspirations and future plans. Read below to see what Juliana had to tell us.
What attracted you to your craft?
Candle making was very much a lockdown activity (after baking and crochet obviously) which took off into a business when I saw the demand was there through friends. After approaching some retail spaces the collection was picked up quite quickly by a couple of independent stores; it’s been steadily growing since then but it’s still very much a handmade cottage industry.
What does your typical day look like?
On the days I work on BURN, I will head to the studio and start by heating up a big vat of wax. Whilst that melts I’ll check in on emails, start planning out what I need to produce for the day and pack orders which are already ready. In between pouring sets there’s normally quite a bit of wait time, so I found that I can work around any illustration work coming in or future plans for seasonal colours or shoots.
Does your product have an environmental focus/does it support the circular economy?
I’m quite conscious for BURN to be as sustainable as possible, I do this by not overproducing by only making small batches which are pre-ordered and any waste or accidents can be set and melted down again for another candle. All packaging is recyclable and reused as much as possible.
What is the USP (unique selling point) for your products?
Although obviously I’m not the first person to ever make a candle, the fact that all of the products are cast from hand molded pieces of clay means that the shapes are quite unique to me and my work.
Where do you source your inspiration for designs?
A big inspiration for the way colour and shape can come together in a really exciting way is Franz West. My illustration work is far more figurative so it’s good to be able to experiment in this way through BURN.
Please can you provide a little more info on how your interest in design started and developed?
My interest in design developed quite naturally through my course. I’ve always enjoyed translating my personal work between 2D and 3D in different mediums. It’s a good progression of a part of my practice into developing a more sellable product.
Do you have any favourite items in the collection?
The stick candles are my personal favourite, I’m always enjoying finding new colour combinations and ways of blending colours together in different ways.
Set of 2 Mixed Candles by BURN £15
How would you summarise your collection in a few sentences, words?
BURN is a collection of hand moulded candle for ambience, incantations and gatherings. All shapes are moulded from a hand sculpted piece of clay and all colours are mixed by hand, so each one is unique.
Does your work have a social impact?
At the moment the work is a bit more insular as it’s just me designing and making, but hopefully as I grow one of my aims is to work out a way to use the craft to impact more people!
What are your hopes for the future/ where would you like to take your design career/ collection?
I’d love to expand into other home items and accessories, perhaps have a physical pop up or exhibition and be able to work on it full time.
Thank you for following along on our meet the maker series so far! Next week, we are bringing this series to a close with our final maker. To explore and read through all our meet the maker posts, click here.