decision not to work on Sunday because I need the day off. It’s not for religious reason or anything like that. It’s just I must have a break. Otherwise I become too overloaded and burnt out. I am aware of that. My son is homeschooled so we’re together all the time.

We keep very strange hours. We lived in Spain for some time and that really throws your sense of time off and you find that you stay up late into the night and get up later in the morning. Or you get up at the normal time but you have a rest in the afternoon because you are [laugh] absolutely shattered. Although we now live in a more temperate climate, we still do that. It’s not unusual to find me up and working at 2 – 3 o’clock in the morning. It’s very unusual to find me out of bed before 9am. Very often, I am working from literally 5 minutes after I get up (I do stop in the kitchen, on the way to my desk, to put the kettle on, I have to have coffee). Once I sit down at my desk, apart from breaks for marking schoolwork and to make dinner or perhaps to go to the shop (if I absolutely have to), I will still be there at midnight. It’s not a question of organizing or planning my day, I’m completely useless at that. I just go. It just happens. Life is work and work is life for me. I don’t have a structured life and I like it this way.

Q:: Friends, neighbors, and relatives may view one who behaves in such a way always differently. What is your experience to that?
Ruby::
Oh, I think so. Absolutely. It doesn’t worry me to be considered bohemian [laugh]. That’s what people often consider me to be, but it doesn’t bother me at all. I recently took, on Facebook which is obviously highly scientific [laugh], the Jungian personality test. It was great when I discovered my level of neuroticism is practically as low as it could possibly be. That certainly seems to be the way that I am. Perhaps I am arrogant in this but if I am, I’m sorry, that’s just the way it is. I have total confidence in the fact that I am what I am and there is nothing wrong with that. I don’t care what people think of me, it’s not an issue. Not that I don’t value other people’s opinions. I do. I like to hear them. I like to talk to them about things, but if they come away from it thinking badly of me, that doesn’t affect me negatively at all.

Q:: Let me ask you again about perception. If you paint a painting, you’re a painter. If you make a sculpture, you are a sculptor. People accept it as a piece of art, whether it’s art or not, it’s subjective. If you tell your friends or acquaintance that you have just done a digital scrapbook design, what is their reaction then?
Ruby::
If it’s the people who know me, they understand what I do and they recognize what I do. The person that I thought would be the least impressed [laugh] is my father because he is extremely practical and he likes physical things. He makes things out of wood and engineering type stuff. He loves art and he loves to paint. My work seemed so fraudulent to me because it doesn’t involve paint, brushes or canvases. It’s electronic and so somehow it’s 'cheating' but he was

the one that said to me some time ago now, “You know, you need to realize that what you are doing is legitimate. That it’s legitimately creative because how many people in all honesty can say, ‘Yes. I sell the product of my creative art every single day.’ Most artists never sell an artwork in their entire life. But that doesn’t stop them from being an artist. What you can say is that the product of your creative imagination appeals to people enough that they are prepare to pay for it. And if there is a better definition of a successful artist, then I don’t know what it is.”

Q:: May I ask you what makes you go to France?
Ruby::
Initially, we moved to France in 2002 because we almost moved here when I was in my early teens. We went to live in Scotland instead. Looking back on it with a virtue of 20 -20 hindsight, it became obvious what we should have done at that time. We should have come here, because the life is just so different. There aren’t pressures, there isn't the materialistic society, there aren’t the expectations and dishonesties amongst people, and there all the other good stuffs that come with living in France. Plus, I would have grown up being properly bilingual instead of floundering around trying to string together the words in French. I thought this would be the best thing that I could do for my son, to give him that opportunity. As it happened, it didn’t turn out terribly well first time. That’s why we went to live in Spain. We decided that he needed more stimulation than he could get here. He has ADD, and he needs to be kept busy, otherwise he is an absolute nightmare. So we thought we would go to Spain where there is a lot more going on, and we spent 2 happy years there. We came back for a variety of reasons. Some work related and some because I have so much family here that there is almost no family left in the UK. They almost all live here or in Ireland now, and it rains too much in Ireland [laugh].

Q:: Are there any other hobbies besides designing?
Ruby::
Well… I have to say that all of my hobbies are creative. I write, I cook, I do physical creative art and I like photography. I’m not very interested in things that don’t stimulate creativity. I love to listen to music, people think I must be into classical stuff (and I do love Mozart and Vivaldi) but when I'm working I usually have Kid Rock or Motorhead on, it helps to get the brainwave going the right way [laugh]. I love to travel and play in my garden. It’s all about creating new experiences, new ideas or physical objects. Other than procreating, which I limited to only one child, apart from that I am unlimited in my creativity. Or try to be.

Q:: If you have one keyword to describe yourself, what would that be?
Ruby::
That is a very difficult question [laugh]. If I have to choose one word to describe myself… well there is only one word that sums it up. That’s ‘Ruby’.