Archives: Artists

A one day course that will teach you the key skills to make your own basic stained glass panel that day and prepare you for your first stained glass project. You will learn how to cut glass and lead, how to solder, cement and polish.

Courses are normally run on an individual basis but two people can be accommodated – so do it with a friend! They are held at my stained glass art studio on the side of Chapel Cain Brea Hill, just off the A30 near Sennen in the far west of Cornwall.

Glass blowing is now my primary glass practice having specialised in kiln cast glass sculptures; this is fitting, as it was glass blowing that inspired me to enter the field of glass in the first place. My glass blowing is a complete antithesis with the often obsession with perfection, repetition, and the overt display of technical ability for its own sake, or all three at the same time, that’s so prevalent in the area of glass. I like to embrace the unpredictability and chance that glass blowing can give while it’s a hot malleable medium. This helps to make each of my pieces unique and almost impossible to repeat – an antidote to the ‘digital’ and the factory made. I introduce bubbles as a means of highlighting the essential reflective quality of glass. Different coloured elements are suspended at different layers to enhance depth and a sculptural quality, and to indicate where there was once movement in its wrestled creation. The finished piece is a time capsule of when it was alive, in flux and a liquid form. I relish the tension & drama between what control and technical ability I have, and what the glass would prefer to do by its own accord!

A mix of indoor and outdoor sculptures ranging in size from 12” to 48” with the glass design encompassing both leaded and fused, and the wood including traditional English hardwoods such as oak and ash.

My work is available in Antiques on High in Oxford and Sidmouth

My current project titled ‘From the Fragment to the Whole’ is a participatory and community art project centred on the parallel between the material qualities of glass and the experience of domestic abuse. I will guide different groups of survivors of domestic abuse to create glass objects from shards of glass. The act of piecing together shattered glass can be a powerful metaphor for the process of reconstructing, repairing and healing the fragmented self.The glass works created will not only reflect and refract the light but also the histories of the participants. For each such groups, the glass making sessions will also produce a final collaborative artwork that will be part of a collection of similar pieces produced by the different groups of survivors. These will then be exhibited in a show. To find out more go to :http://robertadecaro.com/artwork/participatory-art-projects/from-the-fragment-to-the-whole/

My most recent projects are based around sustainability and climate change.
I have new lines of work which are made with re-melted waste glass from our new sustainable studio in West Wales.
The evolution of the studio toward being sustainable is a project in itself, and is documented in my blog and a TEDx talk due to be posted in June 2025.
I am very excited about my newest work which is developing my practice toward more sculptural work and felt very honoured receive a bursary from Fresh Air in 2024 to make and exhibit my first outdoor sculpture (summer 2024 -Bubbling Away) and other sculptural pieces being shown at Doddington Hall and Upton Castle as well.

I produce fused glass pieces for the garden and home. As a garden designer I take my inspiration from the gardens and plants that I work with.