1. Ginny Carol Ruffner was an American glass artist based in Seattle, Washington.
19 Facts About Ginny Ruffner
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Ginny Ruffner is known for her use of the lampworking technique and for her use of borosilicate glass in her painted glass sculptures.
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Ginny Ruffner's works include pop-up books, large-scale public art, and augmented reality.
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Ginny Ruffner was elected as a Fellow of the American Craft Council in 2010.
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Ginny Ruffner received The Glass Art Society's Lifetime Award in 2019.
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Ginny Ruffner was born on June 21,1952, in Atlanta, Georgia.
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Ginny Ruffner's father was an FBI agent, and her mother was a typing teacher.
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Ginny Ruffner studied at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, and Winthrop College in Rock Hill, South Carolina, before transferring to the University of Georgia.
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In 1984, Ginny Ruffner relocated to Seattle, Washington, where she taught the first flameworking class at Pilchuck Glass School.
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Ginny Ruffner was the first woman in the United States to create sculptures with borosilicate glass, which is commonly used in the manufacture of scientific glassware.
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Ginny Ruffner further developed her sculptures by painting them and by combining the lampworked glass with metals and other materials.
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Ginny Ruffner's work is in the permanent collections of the Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass, Carnegie Museum of Art, Cooper-Hewitt Museum, Corning Museum of Glass, Detroit Institute of Art, Fort Wayne Museum of Art; Metropolitan Museum of Art; New Mexico Museum of Art; Seattle Art Museum, and the Smithsonian Museum of American Art.
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Ginny Ruffner's work is included in the United States Art in Embassies Program.
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Ginny Ruffner was profiled on the NPR show Weekend America on March 18,2006.
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Ginny Ruffner was the subject of a documentary, Ginny Ruffer: A Not So Still Life, which won the Golden Space Needle Award - Best Documentary at the Seattle International Film Festival that year.
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In 1991, Ginny Ruffner was involved in a life-threatening three-car collision.
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Ginny Ruffner credits her recovery to being "stubborn and bullheaded".
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Ginny Ruffner spent the next five years in a wheelchair, but eventually was able to walk again.
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Ginny Ruffner died at her home on January 20,2025, at the age of 72.