Ruth Berridge

(1921-2004) Thoroughly modern, Ruth's designs were right in step with the times. She is most known for her modernist type of work in silver yet did produce some pieces of gold. Her original sketches as well as jewelry are quite rare and hard to find. Ruth attended the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design and trained in the New York studio of Danish jeweler Adda Husted Andersen. She opened her own studio in New York in the late 1940's. Her themes were of nature and animals, with designs that had names like "Corridor" and "School of Fish." She not only sold to the public, but she had a line of earrings titled "Flock of Birds", reminiscent of a hanging mobile, that was sold through high end department store like Neiman Marcus and was wildly successful. Every Ruth Berridge piece was hand wrought by Ruth herself. She was the designer, the caster, the assembler, the polisher, the bookkeeper and the saleswoman--all the jobs required to operate a jewelry business. She was, in essence, a one-woman show.