The focus of Sarah Wiberley's glassmaking revolves around her love of colour and pattern. Whilst acknowledging the traditions of glass making within her range of techniques, they are also evident within her unique style. Serving as a starting point, Wiberley adapts these traditional methods to suit her expressive aesthetic, encasing her fluid forms with her distinctive imagery and decoration.

The artist’s ‘Cameo Series’ references 19th century English cameo glass, celebrating this lost skill. Changes in fashion saw this practice as gaudy and excessive, however, with the use of contemporary subject matter & compositions, the outdated gives way to a modern and refreshed take on ornament. 


In the artist’s own words:

“Decoration and ornament have long been disregarded and seen as superfluous to function. Downgraded from a definition of luxury, ornament is often treated with suspicion, it’s intention to deceive. Adverse to this view, ornament is also a strong and effective conveyor of history, tradition and culture.”

With her collections, ‘Going Round in Circles’, ‘Life Patterns’ and ‘It’s Complicated’, Wiberley excels at the complex. Distinct and commanding layered patterns with multiple hues traverse around her vessels. What would be complicated to achieve in the 2D, effortlessly encases her three-dimensional curving canvasses, applied with a couturier’s eye for colour.

Wiberley was introduced to glass in 2001 whilst studying at The Surrey Institute of Art and Design, graduating with 1st class honours 3D Design - specialising in glassmaking - in 2004. It was during this time she experimented with layering, exploiting the different opacities of glass and how this could be employed for her surface imagery. The beginnings of what would later go on to be the signature processes within her work.

Honing her craft via working for a number of prestigious glass studios, Wiberley embarked on a masters degree at The Royal College of Art, graduating in 2011 from the Ceramics and Glass department. This was an invaluable time to unify, refine and build upon the various skills learnt over the previous years.

Wiberley continues to develop her work in her own London-based studio, she has exhibited extensively within the UK, as well as in New York and Europe.

Exhibitions and further information

2025 It's Complicated Solo Exhibition | Process & Creation 

2014 Cameo Series

Artist portrait by David Cleveland.