I GREW up in Prestwick but moved to Glasgow to study silver-smithing and jewellery at Glasgow School of Art.

For the past three years, my partner, Paul-Edouard, and I have lived in this one-bedroomed, Kelvinbridge flat. We get on well with the landlord and it's ideal for us. As well as our lounge, this is where I work during the day, making jewellery. Some people think working from home can be quite isolating, but because I lecture in jewellery-making in the evenings, I don't feel that.

The workbench used to be a watchmakers' bench. It was given to me by a friend who moved back to Canada, and a joiner I know adapted it for me in exchange for a piece of jewellery. The bookshelves to the right of the bench are really good for moving from flat to flat because they fold up.

Working in a creative mess is fine for people who rent studio space. They can go home at the end of the day, leaving whatever they're working on out and returning to it the next day. But when you work from home, keeping things tidy is the key to maintaining your sanity. So rather than working on one piece from beginning to end, I try and work on one stage of the jewellery-making process, whether that be silver work or adding resin, on a few different pieces at the once. That way, I've only got one set of tools out at a time.

What you can't see in this room is the drum kit and the organ on the opposite side from my work bench. Paul-Edouard (who's French) is a part-time musician so is very good at amusing himself. He is very patient and lets me take over the space when I need to. I can bounce ideas off him. I've got lots of friends from the art school or who are jewellers so it's nice to have somebody like him who can point things out that I might not have seen and looks at things in a different way.

At the moment we are young and enjoy living in the city and we love Glasgow but we talk about going to France in the future. We love the food, the weather and the outdoors. It is a very appealing lifestyle as you get older. When we are in France and I see buildings I like, I always think: "Where would my studio go here?" That's part of the reason we make do and mend in this flat because we don't want to necessarily buy furniture. We buy small transportable things so it wouldn't be as much of an upheaval to move them.

www.ruthhollywood.com

Painting of Kelvinbridge

Paul and I bought this at a pop-up event by Bespoke Atelier on a canal boat at the Whisky Bond. It was just before Christmas and we were looking for gifts. We both liked this. It's by Libby Walker. We loved the fact that it was of Kelvinbridge, the area where we stay, but it also featured our friend's gallery, Recoat, which closed last year, so it meant quite a lot to us that it was captured. It was also where we first met. Paul said that one day we might be living in France and it would be nice for us to have that to remind us of living here.

Framed picture

The picture is of a feather and is hand-drawn by Glasgow-based illustrator David Galletly. He uses fine line pens. The piece above my main frame is supposed to be a trivet to put a pot on but I really liked it and couldn't bear to put a pot on it so I put it on the wall instead. I bought this from Recoat gallery before it closed.

Box of tricks

Although I do buy things in charity shops, I predominantly work in recycled silver, which I buy from a bullion merchant. It has been refined down and turned into wire or sheet. Because it's not mined we're not using our planet's resources so for me it's more worthwhile because I'm trying to make more sustainable jewellery. With beads, it's more challenging to get ethically sourced ones so I am specific about where I shop for them.

Ideas board

I take a lot of pictures and I always have my camera with me. For inspiration, I usually come back to science and nature. Some of the images on my ideas board are under-the-microscope images which reveal different shapes and patterns. I do look at a lot of my photographs as well and try to extract shapes from them.

Ceramic character

This is a wee box which contains pieces of silver which I haven't decided how to use yet. It's by a ceramic artist called Camila Prada and I love her work. She is based in England. This is one of her characters called Coco.

Fruit bowl

This was a house-warming gift from my mum. It's actually a cake stand, but we use it as a fruit bowl. We try and eat local produce, rather than pre-prepared. I've got a wee space at Woodlands community garden where I grow food. I love the bright colour. I wear a lot of bright colours and my current range is very colourful so I think people see a bright colour and think of me.