Fused & slumped glass jewellery & platters

Margaret uses words like “addicted” and “obsessed” to describe her love for glassware. Spend five minutes with her in her work space and you’ll be an instant convert as she shows you her collection of dichroic glass, never drawing breath as she explains the intricate techniques of making glass jewellery. It’s hard not to want the lot: it’s all so beautiful.

Like most of us, Margaret found her way through twists and turns. She came to the Bay when she was five. Her parents built the original Great Ocean View Motel, which was then called the Hayley Reef Motel. Margaret has been a trained hairdresser since 1984 and had worked in various other jobs when, in 1999, her mother encouraged her to try making glass platters together. Although they had different ways of working, they shared the same joy of seeing what the kiln had done. Margaret calls it the “surprise factor”. She remembers racing her mother down to the kiln in the garage to see the finished shape. “You look at it glowing red, falling into shape, but you don’t see it as it is until it has cooled in the morning,” she says, recalling times when she would get up early to cool the kiln a bit quicker.

That was fun but cheap imported homewares made her products harder to sell. A standard comment would be, “I love your stuff but I don’t need it for the moment.” Margaret had no intention of making glass jewellery until a day in Melbourne she saw a glass necklace that she almost bought for $140.00. Her sister said, “You could make that yourself”, and she did, starting in the winter of 2004, the kiln warming the house as she experimented and improvised. Margaret survives by a process of continual renewal, by finding new challenges and taking short courses to give her the skill set for the job at hand.

Every piece Margaret makes is unique, part craft, part art, but all hers. Every piece carries her name and the name of Apollo Bay with it. Although she still does hairdressing to pay the bills, Margaret would love to dedicate herself full-time to making glass jewellery. She loves the way it is smooth to touch and how it adjusts to the body temperature. She loves its limitless possibilities. Addicted and obsessed. That’s glass and Glance.

Plants, trees, shrubs and ferns

Les was born in Geelong but moved to Warrnambool in 1941 for an apprenticeship to become a bricklayer and stonemason, two years into World War II. In 1944 Les joined the army, remaining there until the war was over, when he resumed his apprenticeship and finished his trade. He worked for the same builder for 10 years before he left in 1951 to begin his own business as a builder in Warrnambool and district.

Les left Warrnambool for Forrest in 1983, where he and his wife bought a small property. His wife had experience in horticulture, so together they opened a plant nursery. There wasn’t much call for plants during the credit squeeze of the early 1990s, so they closed the nursery. They began attending country markets to sell off their remaining stock. When most of the plants were sold, Les retired but his love of plants would remain. Now he still propagates plants, but the only market he attends is at Apollo Bay on most Saturday mornings, which for him is a social event he wouldn’t miss.

These days the Ricketts breed pedigree Jack Russell terriers for showing, which has proved successful for them, having bred, sold and shown many Australian champions.

Massage and sports therapy

Stand in line behind David Bowie, KISS, Heather Locklear, Bon Jovi and Hootie & the Blowfish if you plan to be one of Jeanine’s regular clients. Born and bred in Apollo Bay, Jeanine McKenzie is a woman of the world. She has 30,000 sea miles behind her, including two Atlantic crossings. Splitting her time between sea and snow, Jeanine has practices in Apollo Bay, at Zermatt in Switzerland and in Orange County, California.

She gets her spirit of adventure from her mother Olive and her energy from her father Alistair. He could tickle a trout and spin a yarn with legendary eloquence; Olive was one of the first skiers in this country, back in 1939 when there were mountains and snow and little else. 40 years on, in 1979, Jeanine left the Bay for an adventure of her own, not knowing that she wouldn’t be back for 25 years, save for some short spells. She ran a business maintaining yachts in Orange County and went skiing in Colorado. Jeanine met her boat-builder husband Phil at Newport, Rhode Island, where Australia II won the America’s Cup in 1983. They continued to work in the U.S.A. and travel the world until Phil decided America was not the place to raise their daughter Amber.

Jeanine wanted to conceive Amber in the high mountains, so she could be close to the spirits of her parents, but as it turned out Amber was conceived in Italy, spent the pre-natal months in Switzerland and was born in California. Amber is a citizen of the world, clocking up sea miles and flight hours every year.

Like her parents, Jeanine can turn her hand to most things. Identifying a natural talent, respected massage therapist Cynthia Ribeiro persuaded Jeanine to enroll for a two-year course in massage in 1987, specializing in sports stresses, given her sporting interests. She still surfs, swims, skis, runs, rides, hikes and dives. Since graduating, Jeanine has developed a client register of 150 in America and more in Switzerland. You may not be one of her celebrity clients, but in Jeanine’s hands you always get the royal treatment.