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About the Artist
"I have always had a life-long fascination with color and patterns in light. I remember as a child spending hours studying clouds, the flecks and veins of mica in granite, and water flow patterns in streams. My jewelry designs and stone colors are chosen with the idea in mind that light in its various levels of color and depth is released from the hidden shadows and dances through defiantly."
Being actively involved in the craft movement since 1973, Ruthie Cohen spent the first 10 years working in fiber, creating wall hangings, window treatments, and even furniture via off-loom weaving and macrame techniques.
Answering a challenge to create wearable art "off the wall", she first miniaturized her designs in waxed linen with gemstone beads. Soon after, Ruthie dove into metal. Earrings, bracelets, necklaces, and even wedding bands were knotted into shape with sterling silver, gold-filled, and 14 karat gold wire.
Self-taught, Ruthie's jewelry skills developed as she exhibited her work at renowned craft fairs in Florida, Maryland, Washington DC, and New York City, where she accepted challenging commissions from an international clientelle. Ruthie "cut her teeth" in the wholesale world by being a tenured exhibitor from 1983 to 1999 with the Buyers Markets of American Crafts; exhibiting in Baltimore, Valley Forge, Atlantic City, Coconut Grove, and finally in Philadelphia.
Moving to Western North Carolina in 1993 has had a profound effect on Ruthie's work. The jewelry designs began to loosen up, they flowed more..... even the stone choices seemed more random but yet made sense together. Somehow the freedom of the mountains influenced the designs. Ruthie explored collaboration with glass artists of the area; utilizing the pieces of Richard Ritter, Gary Beecham and Mary Lynn White, Robert Stephan, and Tim Lewis as bezel set stones in her designs along with gemstone accents. Various national glass galleries and even the Corning Glass Museum Shop offered this unique combination of metal, glass, stones, and pearls.
Being intrigued by the specular crystal formations found in drusy, Ruthie started creating pieces with drusy as her focus which appear to be floating, or suspended on fashioned wires of sterling silver or 14 and 18 karat gold. She now enjoys playing with the reflective patterns found through light giving a flowing or dancing allusion. Pearls and opals are often found as accents in her work along with randomly placed diamonds and gemstones. Ruthie has recently been combining lava from all over the world with various faceted stones.
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