Ruth Nichols aka Hillside Gradens Art Studio

Ruth is another talented lampworker who was falsely accused on the fraud blog of being a tax evader, among other things. Let me assure you, she is not.

Ruth is a “Jill of all trades” in the glass field-at least in my opinion. When you are done reading this post, you will understand why I say that.

Ruth's dad was an artist and teacher and she found herself following in his footsteps and becoming an artist in her own right. After spending time creating with oils, acrylics, charcoal, acrylics and more, she discovered the world of polymer clay. She began making small things, like buttons and sculptures with poly clay. Then, “I soon started creating on a larger scale, making 18 inch to life size Santa's and old world inspired father Christmas's, angels, elves, political figures & fantasy figures. I found that creating almost all of the items that went with each Santa or Father Christmas was worth it in the time spent. Her polymer clay obsession lasted 18 years. Then, she discovered glass.

Glass was able to feed her addiction to color and being able to blend and fuse colors like she could with the polyclay. There was just one small hitch-she wasn't really happy with the tools available for shaping and working with glass. So, while she was torching, she was thinking about tools and what would work. After searching online and not being able to find what she was looking for, Ruth made a drawing and asked her husband to make it for her. Well, since it was made from graphite, it created a bit of a mess, so they decided to contact somebody who had experience with graphite. They found Leon Good at Weaver Industries and soon, The Perfect Tool system was born with Ruth doing the tool designing.

So, now you know why I called Ruth 'a Jill of all trades in the glass field”. If you look at her website, which can be found here, you will see just how talented this lady is http://www.hillsidegardensartstudio.com/