For Ruth Martin, jewelry-making is an escape from the complexities of working in the health care world.  It started innocently with stringing glass beads one long winter in Vermont. Then she encountered seed beads and they led her to off-loom weaving. Finally, it occurred to her that she could make glass beads and the siren call of lampwork drew her in. She loves that she works with glass both as a liquid and a solid, with large beads and tiny beads, and can make sculptural and organic shapes.