
Tony Roberts has been sculpting for many years, so many that he is now grey-bearded and beginning to resemble some of the Standing Stones that have influenced much of his work. He has a fascination for prehistoric human structures and has visited and drawn many, across England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France. These massive stones seem to radiate a lightness - a light that comes from their contact with the whole of human history. This sculpture is inspired by these stones and megaliths. In this piece, he captures this brilliance by recreating these rocky structures in glass, loading it with metals and colour, and reflecting the stones' massive nature in a fused and fractured glass, copper, gold, silver, chrome, brass, bronze and iron surface. Each sculpture starts as a number of sheets of plate glass. Tony cuts and/or smashes these as needed, pre-firing some elements. The piece itself is constructed flat, using the prepared glass, with 24 carat gold, pure silver, and copper in foil, powdered bronze, copper, and brass, wire and oxides. Tony has developed techniques that cause the surface of the glass to fuse with a fine metalic layer in a way that graphically imitates the action of the years on rock. The result causing the sculpture to have many different characters depending upon the direction of its lighting, whilst preserving its ability to transmit light.