Bio
Jessica Theobald is a glass artist working primarily with lampworking alongside glassblowing. Her practice combines glass with mixed media such as metal and fabric, exploring the tension between fragile and industrial materials and the ways they can contain, support or alter one another.
Colour is a key part of Jessica’s work and something she continually experiments with, testing how it behaves through light, layering and different contexts. She is interested in how colour can change the physical and emotional presence of a piece.
Her work explores ideas of containment, transformation and change, often drawing on the forms and structures of the human body. She is particularly interested in how materials can hold, restrict, expand or break away from their original form.
Her process is led by experimentation and making, allowing ideas to develop through the physical manipulation of materials. By combining different processes and materials, she explores how a piece can shift between states of containment, tension and release.
Artist Statement
I work primarily with glass, using lampworking as my main process while increasingly incorporating glassblowing. I am drawn to the precision and intensity of working with hot glass, and to the way both processes require a physical and immediate response to the material. The combination of control and unpredictability allows me to build detailed forms while remaining responsive to how the glass behaves.
Alongside glass, I incorporate mixed media such as metal and found objects to explore contrast, containment and material tension. I am particularly interested in the friction between fragile and industrial materials, and how opposing qualities can be held together within a single form.
Colour is central to my practice. I continually experiment with how it behaves through light, layering, opacity and transparency, particularly within glass where small changes can significantly alter its appearance. I am interested in the emotional weight of colour and how shifts in tone, transparency and intensity can change the presence of a piece.
My work often draws on the human body, particularly ideas of containment, internal space and transformation. I am interested in forms that suggest something being held, compressed, contained or altered, and in the point at which a structure begins to change or break from its original state.
Breath has become an important part of my process, particularly through glassblowing. I use the physical act of melting, shaping and breathing as a way of thinking through ideas. Breath becomes both a tool and a material, influencing the scale, form and structure of the work while introducing an element of unpredictability and control.
Experimentation is fundamental to my practice. I push materials towards their limits and deliberately test how they respond under pressure, particularly in moments where they resist, distort or fail. These points of tension often become important to the development of a piece, allowing the material to influence the outcome rather than simply following a predetermined form.
I rarely begin with a fixed outcome. Instead, ideas develop through the process of making, with the material and physical actions involved shaping the direction of the work. I am interested in creating pieces where meaning is not immediately resolved, allowing form, material and colour to suggest different interpretations rather than providing a single narrative.