Ruby - memory made material
Concept & Design — Nicola Ross Design
Glass Artist — Katie Brown
Photography — Bonny Beattie
Videography — James Gray
Ruby grew from a wider way of thinking about ageing in place, not simply as a question of accessibility and function, but of continuity, memory and the objects that become part of a life.
The idea came to me after a conversation with my client about family, and the places that hold meaning. Kārehana Bay is one of those places for her, and I began thinking about how a physical connection to that place might become part of her new home.
A couple of weeks later, a thought came with such clarity: if glass begins as sand, could sand from this particular place become a light?
My client gathered sand and we gave it to glass artist Katie Brown, beginning a process of experimentation and making. When the prototype arrived, I knew it was special. Within the glass, the sand had transformed, turning amber and suspended through the surface.
The finished light was named Ruby, after my client’s grandmother.
Rather than simply representing memory, Ruby contains the spirit of the place itself: landscape transformed into material, and material into an object that can become part of new memories.
There is something in her presence that to me feels like remembrance, the way we leave a light on for someone we love, or light a candle to hold them close. A quiet companion in the home, carrying something of those who came before, and offering a sense of continuity through the ordinary days, celebrations and challenges of life.
Meaning accumulates.
The meaning Ruby holds for my client belongs to her own memories of family, youth and place. For the generations that follow, that meaning will inevitably change.
Kārehana Bay becomes part of their inherited family history, while Ruby gathers new memories in the home she now belongs to.
The material begins with one person’s history, but as the object moves through generations, that history becomes part of a larger family story and gathers new meaning around it.
The object remains, but its meaning continues to evolve.
To someone else, Ruby may simply be a beautiful light. To this family, she carries something much more, a history that began somewhere else, and a story that will continue here.
Memory made material.
