Projects
Photo: Steve Russell Studios
"If you feel safe in the area you're working in, you're not in the right area. Always go a little further into the water than you feel capable of being in. Go a bit out of your depth and when you don't feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you're just about in the right place to do something exciting.
David Bowie
TEDx Aberystwyth Feb 2025
In Feb 2025 I took David Bowie's advice from the quote above and went out of my comfort zone to give a TEDx talk called, Melting Glass - Not the Planet. Many thanks to the team at TEDx Aberystwyth for making this possible.
Here's an overview of the talk:
Balancing the energy-intensive nature of glassmaking with the need for climate change
mitigation, Roberta explores innovative techniques and responsible practices to reduce her environmental footprint. Through her blog, she shares insights into the intersection of art, science, and sustainability, exemplifying the potential for art to inspire positive change.
The image of molten glass is powerful: transformation, beauty, and immense energy. But in the age of climate change, it forces us to ask tough questions. How can we pursue our passions without fuelling the crisis?
In her talk, Roberta will use her experience as an artist working with glass to navigate the bigger picture of sustainability. It's about more than just footprints and offsets; it's about reimagining our relationship with energy, embracing innovation, and finding creative solutions to create a more sustainable future-one piece of glass at a time.
Many thanks to @neilwilkinglass for sharing this journey
#excitingtimes #contemporaryglass #madeinwales #tedxaberystwyth
Sea Blooms
I've been wanting to develop some new, smaller scale sculptures that can be shown in groups and this summer's garden exhibitions have inspired me to make my new Sea Blooms. These are available from both Upton Castle Gardens and Hidcote National Trust Gardens.
Bubble Coral
'Bubbling Away'
I was incredibly lucky to be given a bursary by Fresh Air in 2024 to explore making a larger scale outdoor sculpture for their summer exhibition. This provided a wonderful opportunity to take working with recycled and repurposed material to a new scale.
The sculpture I created, 'Bubbling Away', was inspired by the delicate forms of bubble coral, Bubbling Away is a reflection on environmental fragility. Crafted from repurposed glass and mirror, the work's degraded mirrors capture and distort the viewer's image, forcing a confrontation with their own presence within a diminished natural world. This piece serves as a physical dialogue, using aesthetic beauty to provoke a critical self-reflection on our collective choices and their profound impact on all living things.
