How Jewelry Designer Mary MacGill Takes Inspiration From Block Island and the Hudson Valley for Her Gemstone Pieces
Mary MacGill always knew she wanted to be a jewelry designer. At a young age, the designer attended a summer arts camp in Vermont where she took a silver smithing class and claims she “caught the bug” and immediately asked her parents for a welding torch.
“They said, ‘no way,’” MacGill said. “They said, ‘we’ll introduce you to a dear friend of ours who makes jewelry without a torch and without chemicals and stuff like that.”
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That’s how MacGill was introduced to the late jewelry designer Kazuko Oshima, who mentored her in wire design and gemstones. MacGill took that training, studied art and English at Brown University and spent two years working for David Yurman on the jeweler’s high-end bead collections.
While she enjoyed her time at David Yurman, MacGill said she “really can’t function without taking a walk in the woods or walking on the beach,” so she left New York City and returned to Block Island, R.I., where she spent her summers growing up. Now, MacGill splits her time between Block Island and Germantown, N.Y., in the Hudson Valley, where she has two storefronts offering her eponymous jewelry line.
MacGill launched her jewelry line in 2013, centering on wire wrapping and gemstones. The jewelry designer explained she takes inspiration from the natural elements found in Block Island and Germantown, which makes her gravitate toward materials like baroque pearls, green tourmaline and sapphires.
“It’s tied to nature and it’s tied to a sense of place,” MacGill said. “The stones really articulate my surroundings and then I use wire as a framework for the stones. Whether that be weaving the wire and these Kazuko-like ethereal structures, or framing the stone in gold wire.”
Many of MacGill’s pieces are one-of-a-kind, given the materials she uses, or collections offered in small quantities. She said her bestsellers are the baroque pearl drop earrings that she initially launched the brand with, as well as many of the gemstone pieces.
In the last year, MacGill has slowly grown her brand into new categories. Last fall, she expanded into the men’s jewelry category, offering bracelets, cuff links and earrings in sterling silver and with gemstones.
“The surprising thing is it doesn’t have to be a men’s collection,” she said about the collection’s reception. “It was geared toward men and a more masculine energy, but I found that the reaction is equal with women as well. It’s just sort of appreciated that our line can be worn by anybody. I’ve actually found an uptick in men coming to our fine jewelry line, which was really surprising and really fun.”
She’s also expanded her collection of ready-to-order engagement rings created with mineral diamonds and gemstones.
For MacGill, brick-and-mortar retail is also an important component of the business. She opened her Hudson Valley store in 2017 and her seasonal Block Island location in 2018.
In the Hudson Valley, the store functions as an art gallery where MacGill brings in various painters, photographers, sculpturers, textile artists and ceramicists to showcase their work. Both stores also offer a selection of clothing and other accessories.
“There’s something that happens when you get to walk around and experience a space,” she said about her stores. “You start to make connections that you can’t make translated online or translated on social. It’s a fully different experience and it’s important to see craftsmanship and artistry in person because you have a whole new concept of texture.”
MacGill said this gallery-like strategy to retail engages her customers on a deeper level, and allows for them to get insight into her design process.
“It’s obviously growing up in the way that I did and wanting to bring things that inspire my work into the same space and see them together,” she said. “Also, bringing those people that I was really looking at and inspired by to a space and to see how people reacted to the whole collection and how they felt.”
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