Tom Barter

I received my BFA from Humboldt State University in California in Ceramics in 1988. The focus of my practice was making hand made tiles. For 20 years I created and made large scale public artworks for several California cities. During this time I had a studio that I shared with a glass blower and a caster. Although I never made any glass pieces then the idea and intrigue of making glass objects sat in my head as a direction I might like to go in. So when I moved New Zealand in 2004 I took a casting course and started my exploration of the glass object. 

My first works in glass were mostly flat back castings that were similar to my tilework at the time. I however was also interested in how to make some simple 3D forms. Part of my ceramic expertise is mould making so the transition into lost wax casting happened fairly quickly. I now almost exclusively use cast glass as my media of choice. Further to the development of origami objects I am working on a new direction involving the use of a repeated cast glass art deco element that is built into larger glass objects.