About
Me and Mine
I didn’t always know that I would end up a jeweler.
A vet was more along the lines of what I wanted to be when I was a child, or maybe a dancer.
Dancing was about dreaming I was someone else, which is not the kind of dream you chase forever.
Being a vet didn’t involve the wonderful spaced out floaty feeling that came along every time I knitted or drew or pounded nails into a block of wood.
When it came time to decide what I wanted to do when I grew up, nothing made sense as much as finding a way to float around in the wonderland to creativity.
I started with glass which is a magical material in my eyes, but found that it was a complete mismatch to my personality.
Clay was great, but with to much of its own mind, and for the younger me, that was a bit frustrating.
At first, I had no attraction at all to metal. In fact, I was pretty sure that I would drop it in the middle of that first semester, until the first time I touched silver.
Silver changes as you work it in the most unexpected ways. The surface goes from shiny grey to a beautiful matte white, during the different sanding filing and hammering process, a variety of reflections and surfaces are achieved, always new and interesting (so much so, in fact, it is still a challenge to decide on the exact finish I want for a piece since the possibilities are limitless).
And best of all - metal has no mind of its own. It is malleable and disciplined in the hands of a skilled metal smith doing exactly what is asked of it, and only as long as it is being manipulated. If you decide to take a break for a minute, an hour, a day or a year, the piece will be exactly as you left it - because it has no will of its own, therefore is perfect to embody the will of the artisan.
I love that. That hard and soft, stiff and malleable contrast.
The jewelry aspect of metal work came with time. I liked the small scale and the stories that are a completely integral part of jewelry.
My story and connection to metals and Jewelry has evolved over the passed 15 years.
Gold has joined silver as one of my favorite materials and I am less in awe of the physical possibilities than I am intrigued with the design process that flows through my work over the years.
This blog will be about all of that.
About my inspiration,
About my creations
And about the business of being a Jeweler
And the art of balance.
You can contact me at ruthjf @ netvision dot com