Deborah Thomas

The humble material of Deborah Thomas’s light sculpture is in stark contrast to its jewel-like effect and the opulent surroundings and materials employed throughout Chatsworth. Beginning with pieces of found, cheap broken glass out of necessity, Deborah was originally interested in how the material was perceived: poor, discarded or accidental. Reassembling pieces from one broken form to create something entirely new or different became central to her practice. Now she uses a fine metal hammer to tap away by hand small fragments of glass from bottles, which have first been cracked. The edges are then hand-polished to soften them, as though they have been washed and worn by sea and wind.

Each piece of glass is captured by wire thread, leaving a long tail, which is interwoven with all the other tails from the many fragments, making up the shape of the work. Crucially for her, this brings a practical immediacy to her method of working, so she can readily change the position of the glass fragments to achieve a sense of movement.

Deborah Thomas graduated from the Slade School of Art with an MA in Theatre Design in 1983. She most recently had her work exhibited at the Victoria &Albert Museum in “British Design, 1948-2012: Innovation in the Modern Age”, and at 10 Downing Street. She has completed major commissions for Peter Marino Architects as well as several private collectors, and her work is held in the Victoria and Albert Museum. She lives and works in Warwickshire.