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.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article