Thomas Petit

I draw upon many influences, in the creation of my glassware, from the broad spectrum of the Arts, my own photography, to everyday objects & experiences.
When I set out to design a new range, I usually have a set of colour combinations in mind. I often try to visualise what they will look like in my head, and jot down notes, about possible colours & techniques. Unfortunately, ideas that worked in your brain, or on paper, often look considerably different in the glass medium; So, I will try some of these ideas out, and keep altering it, until, I get the desired effect. Sometimes, it is the happy accidents that spark off the best ideas. Gravity showed me the way to go with "Mono", when I got a piece too hot. The "Stripe" Flattened Paperweights came about, because, a piece I was trying to blow, wouldn't blow up, so, I flattened it to see what it would look like.
When I first started working on "Moors", it was the colour combinations of Ruby & Topaz that interested me. It wasn't until I had made a few pieces that I realised it looked a bit like an abstract sandy dune-scape & promptly named it "Dune". What "Dune" looked like then, with a clear background & two tone sandy coloured trail & what "Moors" looks like now, are quite different. It took years of tweaking, putting in the opalescent white background, adding  two further colour bands of purple/blue &  greens & introducing black, in various applications, before we reach the "Moors" of today.