Deb Wardle – Glass with Class

Being interested in lots of things has led Deb Wardle down many different paths over the years, not always ones she set out to follow. Although she describes herself as normally a very planned and methodical person she has had to learn to “wing it” more than once, no more so than in her most recent venture – establishing an art studio in Martinborough. Here she holds classes in fusing glass to make jewellery, mosaics, and wall tiles.

Fifteen years ago Deb bought 30 acres of land south of Martinborough and set up the vineyard that is now Cirrus Estate. With a wry smile Deb says “I loved it and I lost lots of money, which forced me to sell at the end of 2006”. In between the wine business and her new art studio was a three-year Diploma in Art and Creativity from the Learning Connexion in Taita. During her study Deb was exposed to the joy of experimentation with drawing, painting, collage, printmaking, stone carving, forging, bronze, ceramics, environmental art, sculpture and glass. She says that it was “like kindergarten – I got to play with everything and I loved it”.

After graduating in early 2012, Deb and a fellow artist held an exhibition at Aratoi, which was memorable for the glass asparagus she created. Her next question was “Now what?” Jobs and life events continued, but over the next two years Deb became determined to build a proper studio in her backyard. Her needs were fairly simple – a space that was airy, light, dust proof, with good lighting and plenty of power points. She muses, “I wanted a space that was warm and welcoming to others while giving me somewhere to create, teach and display my art work permanently”.

Turning a steel barn into a living space and studio was a challenging process that put Deb’s creative talents to good use. The barn design she chose is usually a kit set for farms, and even Affordable Sheds who built it said they had never done something so tiny and different. That posed many problems but the result is a charming, light, airy work and living space. It’s clean and uncluttered, simple yet comfortable, with just enough of Deb’s artwork to sense her style. As a child, Dr. Seuss was always a favourite author of Deb’s and as an adult she finds herself “fascinated with the works of Dali”. She expresses a desire “to combine the humour and quirkiness of these two inspirational artists into my work” and elements of both are evident in the work she has displayed.

Deb says that she is keen to increase the classes she has already begun making jewellery with glass, using astonishing tiny kilns that work in an ordinary microwave. She also wants to expand into other creative areas, but all this is still unfolding.

Deb had a serious encounter with cancer at the age of 31, and later lost an eye in a fencing accident. That loss means that, as she puts it, “it’s quite tricky to work with small fine detail as my depth perception is compromised. That leads me to make some of my mistakes appear deliberate and sends me off on another creative tangent which generally has a better outcome than something I imagined to be perfect! Adapting to your circumstances and finding the positive angle is not always easy, but it is the answer”.

As she says, “some really hard things have happened to me but I feel so grateful for what I have and where I live”. Her approach to this new part of her working life is quite simple: “I need enough to pay the bills and give back by having some fun, and hopefully that makes life a brighter place”. She wants to encourage people to “forget the crazy, mad stuff and stress in their lives for a couple of hours and allow time to play”. I doubt that any of us would disagree with doing that.