Thomas Petit Glass

Thomas grew up in East Sussex, but spent quite bit of his childhood away at a school in North Yorkshire, which was not a good experience.  Having decided to be the next Bernard Leach, his Pottery Teacher and Mother persuaded him to try other avenues and it was during this adventure and a childhood memory of a trip to the Dartington Crystal factory, that introduced him to glassblowing. After leaving school to do an apprenticeship at a glass studio, that didn’t turn out to be the offer he thought it was, he worked in a voluntary capacity at a studio in Covent Garden, before getting a brief three month experience at Isle of Wight Glass. He then did a general Art Foundation in Hastings & a few years at a 3D Design Glass & Ceramics Degree Course in Sunderland before taking a year out to do the course he had wanted to do at the International Glass Centre in Brierley Hill. He didn’t return to complete his degree course, as he felt it was of no benefit, but instead secured a base level job at Peter Layton’s ‘London Glassblowing Studio.

After 5 years there he travelled to a job in Whangarei, New Zealand for three years, before returning to the U.K. and various jobs in Derbyshire Studio’s . He eventually decided to concentrate on his own work, renting glass studio days where he could, doing trade shows to find galleries and retail shows to meet and sell direct to the public.

During the Pandemic when many normal sales outlets were closed or cancelled, a chance screenshot passed on by a fellow member of an Art Group ( Peak District Artisan’s) led to a collaboration to make a lino cut printing tool, called a ‘Baren’. Using the power of mainly Instagram, he has sold over 200 worldwide in many Countries.

He found that Trade Show’s were no longer attracting the relevant galleries for his product’s anymore but many more were approaching him through his website, random google searches & Instagram.