David Harber’s most notable designs include three of his pieces being unveiled by the Queen and one by Prince Charles. Alongside this, his prestigious client list includes celebrity and public figures including George Michael and Dame Judi Dench. A special sundial commission for the late Queen Mother’s 100th birthday, as well as bespoke projects for Royalty in Bahrain and Dubai, are amongst some of David’s most well-known pieces.
David’s garden art and installations, which he is most well-known for, have won the RHS Chelsea Flower Show Sundries Trophy five times and are gold trophy winners for the Design and Decoration awards.
David Harber started his design journey by creating bespoke sundials, taking inspiration from the antique armillary sphere. David is credited with making sought after timepieces and is considered one of the few artisans to create sundials of such exquisite quality and craftsmanship. Since then, David Harber has been showcasing his original and masterful creations for over 20 years.
Evoking enchantment
Together with a team of skilled craftsmen, David takes traditionally masculine and highly durable materials and skilfully crafts them into a more feminine form. He is constantly pushing the boundaries of creativity by striving to reinvent and reshape materials, techniques and shapes. Using materials such as stainless steel, stone, bronze and copper that are affected by the environment, David aims to create timeless sculptures or heirlooms that are designed to last and pass down through the generations.
David’s work is derived from his fascination of light, shadow, science and nature and he strives to create beguiling interactions between reflection and illusion. Commenting on his work, David states: “My works often aim to evoke enchantment via a kind of sculptural playfulness, as if to invite the viewer to question what they see.”
For one project, David Harber worked with Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc to create a striking water feature. The brief was to have it serve as both a focal point and an unusual champagne cooler. David’s award-winning chalice features two stainless steel mirrored hemispheres and as the water overflows, it clings to the surface creating the illusion that it is slowly revolving on its axis. This design was used as inspiration and the chalice was transformed into a substantial stone water feature, while the reservoir tank was adapted to house speakers for the bar’s sound system.
Another piece of David’s most striking and best-loved designs is the Mantle. This spherical piece is made up of hundreds of bronze petals linked into a cellular latticework of turquoise verdigris. The underside of each leaf is gilded with gold leaf, giving the Mantle’s interior an ethereal golden glow. The Mantle has been used in a number of key commissions including a private client in Istanbul and inspiration for a bespoke commission in Chengdu, China.
The Taurus is one David’s most mesmerising sculptures, an imposing convex curved surface in mirror polished stainless steel that mirrors its own environment. A central ‘portal’ creates further connection to the natural environment and it can be made in a number of sizes from 100cm up to a grand 240cm diameter. The Taurus has been created for a number of private clients as well as a public space in Chengdu, China and for HSBC Bank.
David is not only known for garden sculptures, he has developed his skills and expanded into interior sculpture and large public works for private homes, palaces and public institutions and increasingly is working on bespoke commissions abroad including the USA, the Middle East, Australia and Singapore.
With a successful UK-based business that spans the globe from America to the Middle East, David Harber has retained a personal approach to his brand with a focus on the craftsmanship and continuing innovation of his creations at his Oxfordshire workshop. His studio is a reminder of how sculpture was once made – “By a visionary artist-craftsman in charge of an atelier, making art for patrons”.