“What’s the purpose of getting it for those who can’t get pleasure from it?” Mary Frances Maker wonders aloud.
Maker, an Atlanta resident by means of New York, Asheville, Raleigh, and Charleston, South Carolina, doesn’t consider in jewellery that’s too high-quality to put on. She launched her eponymous enterprise, Mary Frances Maker, in 2014 after utilizing what she’d gleaned on the benches of each high-quality and trend jewelers to domesticate her personal aesthetic. From her residence studio, she crafts items in treasured stones and metals (though her favourite medium is 14-karat yellow gold) meant to have fun and elevate the memorable milestones in life. “Nice jewellery is for everybody,” she says, “to commemorate every little thing from a promotion to a brand new child to your canine who you liked greater than something.”
Within the final yr, her focus has shifted to {custom} designs with one explicit purpose in thoughts: to make the previous presentable. We chatted with Maker to study extra about how she bought her begin, her pivot into {custom} heirloom redesigns, and her secret to good present giving.
Early on, creating birthstone items was large for you. The place did that concept come from, and why do you’re feeling related to it?
I like to design sentimental items, and the birthstone semi-custom design was an effective way to assist get individuals’s creativity flowing. I not too long ago had a shopper who wished to design a birthstone-inspired piece, however as a substitute of that includes an precise birthstone, she included six stones for the month of June when her son was born. She known as me midway via the challenge, beaming, and stated, “I simply realized that these diamonds got here from my Aunt June!” These little winks and moments of connection the place my shoppers get to characterize individuals they love are actually particular.
Your new work focuses on taking heirloom items and making them wearable. Speak a bit a couple of memorable heirloom redesign.
Heirloom items are transcendent. They will maintain a selected place in time, however they will additionally develop, evolve, and acquire tales as they move from one technology to the following. The piece begins to imply one thing completely different to every one who wears and receives it.
There’s an emerald pendant I labored on in Charleston that had been handed down from a grandmother to my shopper. It got here to me in a dated, yellow-gold claw setting. We modernized it with a bezel setting, then made it a bit funky by together with an offset diamond on the chain. Earlier than, it solely seemed applicable for a Gilded Age cocktail social gathering, and it was a lot extra wearable after we have been completed! You by no means need one thing that particular to take a seat in a field.
Maker’s reworked design for a shopper’s heirloom emerald.
The vacations are in full swing, and I do know from Instagram that you just’re such a considerate present giver. What’s your technique?
Reward giving is a love language that I actually get pleasure from talking. My greatest recommendation is straightforward: Hear! Folks will typically let you know, generally accidentally, precisely what they need for those who pay a bit additional consideration within the months forward of Christmas. I really preserve a operating be aware in my cellphone to shortly kind in a brand new thought as I hear individuals drop hints all year long.
When you’re actually uncertain, it’s nonetheless doable to provide with thoughtfulness. For instance, I’ve a session possibility the place somebody can put a deposit down, schedule an appointment with me, after which let the recipient determine find out how to spend that point (and what piece to create). We even have a concierge program that enables shoppers to offer an inventory of gift-able dates. From there, I create {custom} jewellery that arrives wrapped and prepared. Considered one of my concierge shoppers has really been with me for 5 years, and his spouse and daughters are clad in MFM season after season! In fact, if all else fails, head to the G&G Area Store. (Editor’s be aware: We promise we didn’t ask Maker to plug our retailer, however we do actually carry a few of her stunning designs.)
Discover Mary Frances on her web site to schedule a digital session, or observe her on Instagram to scout one in all her quarterly pop-ups at a metropolis close to you.
