Jon Mills

Born in 1959 in Birmingham, Jon Mills comes from a long line of metalworkers; workshops and factories were a common place for him to be around as a child.
 
On graduating with a degree in design he primarily produced metal automata, and, influenced by the blacksmith’s he had seen working in the Black Country, he adopted their various techniques and practices, such as chalking out shapes on the workshop floor as a primary design step.
 
He realised his first piece of steel furniture in 1986, the early furniture pieces incorporating mechanical elements, such as an automated mouse playing a fiddle, or ‘Dan Dare Chair’s’ cable-operated, multi-directional radar dish.
 
The early ’90’s saw his move into Public Art, designing and fabricating public sculptures for numerous high streets around the UK, along with bridges, clocktowers, chandeliers for Art Galleries and many decorative gates and railings for Local Authorities (www.metaljon.com).
 
All of the work he has created over the years to illustrate his children’s books (www.mrwatt.biz) is now on permanent display at the Museum of Iron in Ironbridge – the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution and where his family’s roots are.
 
He has set up a number of shared artist workshop complexes over the years including Red Herring Studios in Brighton, and continues to work at Robertson Yard Studios, home to 20 different Art & Craft disciplines.