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Joanna RITCHIE
For my first article featuring the work of local jewellery designer/makers, I travelled to Ballyclare and met up with Ruth
Walker who showed me around her impressive home studio and some of the techniques that she uses to create her
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collection of glass jewellery.
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What is your name and your business name, and how did you get started in the jewellery industry?
My name is Ruth Walker and my business name is Ruth Walker Glass. It was more by chance. I moved over to Northern Ireland
almost six years ago with my family very shortly after finishing a degree in architectural stained glass. Having been out of university a year
or so and not got anywhere finding large scale commissions due to the recession, I decided to diversify and set up my own business.
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Did you undertake formal training in college or within the Industry, or did you find your way into Crafts via a
different route?
My degree was in architectural stained glass. Its main aim was to teach us to become glass designers for large scale buildings, and it taught
us the practise of stained glass, fusing glass & applying decoration onto glass in many different ways.
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What would you describe your design style as being, in terms of the jewellery that you create?
My pieces tend to be classic, usually in the style of a pendant, earring and a ring that will co-ordinate and are timeless. I work with the qualities
in my glass. One of my more resent collections is using dichroic glass which I hand etch. I call them my Dichro Do odle range. It goes into the
kiln upside down and this gives me a blank canvas to start working on, but unlike drawing on paper with a pencil it cannot be rubbed out.
Making every mark a commitment. I then etch away parts of the glass using an engraving to ol to reveal the colour underneath. Each
finished piece of jewellery is an individual one of a kind original. I love that they are all different.
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As a designer where do you draw your inspiration from?
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My inspiration can come from all kinds of places, the world around me, the materials I’m working with. Sometimes it is something more
specific. I was recently asked to make a collection of Jewellery for a fashion show, featuring the work of Marion Baur who is a master
weaver and seamstress and owner of Flax Mills Textiles who grow & make irish linen just outside Dungiven. Having researched all kinds
of things like damask patterns & irish linen designs, I went right back to basics and lo oked at the weaving process. The collection ended up
being a mixture of woven glass fused together & Dichroic glass pieces that I hand etched incorporating weaving and sewing stitches.