Despite only recently moving to Mildura, Ruth Geffen has big hopes for her future here. Jessica Cornish spent an afternoon learning how to make glass jewellery with the local glass and mosaic artist. Picture: Carmel Zaccone
FROM a young age Ruth always loved art; but ironically her lack lustre drawing skills were not deemed to meet the teacher’s standards, so growing up she wasn’t able to participate in art classes at school.
“In those days, if you couldn’t draw you couldn’t do art,”she recalls.
“I had the creativity but I never learnt to draw. I was creative in other ways, so when I was a kid I did pottery, like all kids do; and made hundreds of ash trays until I grew up and moved on to other things and got back into art in 2003.”
It was in 2003, when Ruth was living in New Zealand, the family embarked on a weekend getaway, but their initial plans for the trip were derailed due to high winds and terrible storms, so they sought shelter from the harsh weather and stumbled into a cafe.
“It was the most amazing place, there was a couch made of mosaics, a lamp, flowers and a photo frame, like a massive installation of mosaics,” she says.
“I thought ‘oh that’s nice’, so I signed up to do a course, came back to Auckland and convinced a colleague and a friend of mine to learn mosaics, and from then on I was hooked.”
Fast forward 15 years from her initial mosaic class to 2019, with her newly established life in Mildura, this newcomer has a rapidly evolving art studio, lined with shelves, filled with sheets of glass, an extensive collection of colourful tiles, stones and an array of tools including a grinder, glass cutter and two kilns.
Like Ruth’s wide array of equipment, she has an extensive knowledge and passion for glass, which is impressive.
As she swiftly moves across her home-based studio, safety goggles in situ, she moves between the glass cutter to her workbench, where she is designing a pendant made from shards with deep purple and electric blue glass.
Ruth explained the fundamental principles that lie behind the world of glassware and jewellery.
“Glass expands and contracts when exposed to different temperatures,” she says.
“When it reaches approximately 800 degrees celcius it becomes molten and it does all its beautiful things and solidifies as it cools down.
“It fuses to other pieces of glass and this is where the fun and creativity begin. Lots of happy accidents and lots of learning. I never stop learning and experimenting.
“You can only mix glass of the same ‘family’ together. Each type of glass has its own behaviour and can only fuse within the ‘family’.
“All the glass I use is imported from the United States and so I have to plan what I buy and use it very carefully.”
While she knows what glass works together, Ruth is forever experimenting and playing with different designs.
She gestures to a small dotted lined exercise book lying open on her work space where she jots down ideas.
“I still record everything I do. I write down how long it was in the kiln, what type of glass it was, what temperatures were used and did it work,” she says.
And while her mind is always busy with a constant stream of possibilities, Ruth admits that working in mosaic and glass is both therapeutic and addictive.
On many occasions she simply gets lost in her own “dream world” and she admits to becoming easily “obsessed” with whatever project she is working on.
“Today I’ve been here most of the day and I forgot to have lunch, so I had lunch at three o’clock. It becomes obsessive and you just create,” she says.
With so many talents and interests, Ruth’s creativity is only bound by her imagination that can stretch to fill the needs of others.
For a long time Ruth has created large scale mosaics as well as household glassware like bowls, breadboards, cheeseboards and plates.
Within the past few months she has expanded to jewellery, which includes beautiful glass pendants laced with swirls of colours.
However, when asked what her favourite projects are to work on, she prefers work specifically requested by clients.
“I like making something specific for people; like a water feature for your garden or a bird bath,” she says.
“I have had a lot of commission work and even completed a mosaic of a whole wall of a kitchen for someone and I’ve done a piece in a Melbourne-based cafe depicting a scene of the Western Wall in Jerusalem.”
She is keen to continue to work further within public art spaces and work in conjunction with the community.
Since leaving Melbourne earlier this year, Mildura is now home to Ruth, her husband and their energetic dog Riley.
Ruth has big hopes for expanding Geffenitely Glass Art and Mosaics.
Ruth is part of a co-op in Hahndorf, making a day trip once a fortnight to Camelia Country Cottage in the German-themed village.
Ruth hopes to start teaching on-going mosaic classes and running weekend workshops for Sunraysia locals early in the coming year.
She’s even dipping her toes into the local art makers scene and can be found in person at the next Riverfront Boutique Market gearing up to the festive season.
