Although they worked in many genres, Ruth and Svetozar were best known for their exquisite jewelry. Unlike sculpture that simply stands on its own, explains Ruth, "a piece of jewelry must serve human majesty. It must expand the wearer, and it must create an impact on all who see it." Her husband, however, was not so concerned with the wearer but with the construction of the piece. "I have a very strong feeling that forms for jewelry need not be flat," he said. "There's a whole dimension that adds tremendous richness to it, and when a person moves, you see a piece from different angles and it becomes a different piece each time you see it. That's what's so nice about jewelry. It has so many possibilities."

 

Svetozar: "Work I have done in the past and the work I do now is my statement. It comes as a result of my philosophy, knowledge, perceptiveness, understanding, beliefs and my skills. I like to give what information I think is necessary and leave room for the viewer's imagination to be part of seeing as they may see or interpret it. It is a great feeling, understanding that whatever I do, I am the only judge of what I do and how, from the very beginning to the finish of the work. I am interested, naturally, in final results, but without going through the process of creating it, it would leave me incomplete. I have been privileged for the most part of my life to do what I wanted to do. My curiosity has not left me.

 

Ruth: "The things you like and respond to all your life become a part of you and emerge in your art."

 

Ruth: "In a world in which people are concerned with what they shouldn't do, art is an oasis without any real should-nots. There are no absolutes, no wrongs: there isn't one thing, one way, a right way. The only limits are those you impose on yourself."

 

Svetozar: "The only thing is, I think life is too short to keep making the same thing two or three times if you can avoid it."

 

Svetozar: "Ten years, twenty years, a hundred years from now, no one will care who made the pieces. What counts is the art. When you look at pieces from antiquity it's not important who made them. They exist."