About Me …

Hello, I'm Mercedes and I'm a glass artist, designing and making striking colourful hand-made decorative fused glassware for you and your home.

Creative with colour and passionate about pattern, I enjoy creating bright and bold patterned pieces often with unusual contrasting colour combinations. I find inspiration in the world around me: in nature as well as from art, cinema, fashion and architecture.

I inherited my love of colour from my parents and through my upbringing and childhood. Mama was Spanish and my Dad is Malaysian (Malay). I grew up in the 70s in a wonderfully bright and colourful home. Mama often made my clothes, exquisitely sewn and when I’m happy you’ll always find me in a bright outfit. 

Glass is an alluring material and has always captivated me – my family say that when I was a small child, at bedtime I would cast aside my dolls and teddybear and insisted on going to sleep clutching a glass bottle of Milk of Magnesia because I was mesmerised by its cobalt blue colour. (It was like the Neals Yard blue bottle but brighter.)

My love of colour is paired with a precise and neat style with a restrained sensibility, perhaps shaped by my former career in legal publishing and management roles. However my life changed direction when I did a foundation course at Camberwell College of Arts and after finishing in 2010 started adult education courses in glass, first in stained glass and then moving on to fused (kilnformed or “warm”) glass. I regularly attend courses and masterclasses to develop my knowledge and learn new techniques to apply in my work.   

I am a member of the Contemporary Glass Society. 

Based in both London and Suffolk, I'm inspired by the very different aspects of each place. In London, I enjoy the diversity and energy of the capital city, which has so much to offer by way of culture, architecture, galleries and museums, In Suffolk, the colours and beauty of the landscape influence my work – the sea at Aldeburgh, the beautiful countryside around Snape, and the woods and commons around Blaxhall, where I live – as well as the sense of history and tradition.

My fascination with glass continues: it can be a tricky material to work with but the finished result – when light streams through it – is beautiful and uplifting. It makes me happy and smile and I hope it will do the same for you.

I’ve always made things and have been creative. I make things that I like and appeal to me. I often start with the question “What if?” and delight in the process of making and realising new ideas. Often I start by drawing designs, consider the colours and create a paper prototype to play around with. When satisfied, I cut the glass by hand and assemble the piece, often adapting it as it progresses.  The design and making process usually takes a while to get right, even for simple designs. Each piece is fired, at least once to a temperature of over 700 degrees celsius and a firing schedule takes around 24 hours. Some pieces take several firings to complete. During firing, the glass fuses (softens) and its colour intensifies - the process is quite magical – you never know quite how it will come out. Sometimes my ideas don’t work out but hey, I’ve fun and learnt things on the way!

I work from home, either in South London from my loft and shed which is where my small kiln lives; or in Suffolk where I have recently converted the garage into a lovely studio with a big super kiln. (I originally named it ‘The Beast’ but thought that was too scary so it’s now called ‘Lola’ because she’s big and beautiful and would make a great showgirl!)

I enjoy undertaking commissions, creating something unique and special for a particular person or occasion and working to a brief.  It's a challenging process, a bit daunting but rewarding: I like to interpret a client's ideas, create eye-catching designs and collaborate with them to make it a reality.

For more detail about How to Commission me - click here. 

If you're interested in commissioning a piece, please let me know and I will be very happy to talk though your ideas with you. Please email me at mercedesoakleyglass@gmail.com