Mary MacGill’s jewelry-making mentor, Kazuko Oshima, used to carry around pieces of her jewelry, which sold for thousands of dollars at Barney’s, in an oversized tote bag. When she saw a person on the street whose energy seemed to be off, she would stop them, press a priceless item into their hands, and tell them how that particular crystal could help them.
MacGill, a Hudson Valley-based jewelry designer and gallery owner, believes in the spiritual properties of crystals in a slightly different way from her mentor. As an artist, she believes in letting things speak to her: the stones she feels drawn to, the artists she particularly admires, the natural topography that has inspired her since the beginning of her career.
MacGill first became interested in jewelry making at age 13 after attending an arts summer camp in Vermont. She returned home and passionately announced to her parents that she would need supplies: chemicals, soldering supplies, a torch. “Alright, slow down,” they said to her. “This is like the time you wanted a horse.” MacGill laughs when she remembers the story.
She assured them this was not just a fleeting desire, and her parents introduced her to Oshima, a family friend. Oshima made jewelry by hand without harsh chemicals or extremely technical tools. She introduced MacGill to the business and techniques of the trade, as well as some of her stone vendors. “She brought me under her wing,” MacGill remembers. From there, MacGill was hooked, selling at farmers’ markets in her teens before starting her professional career at a fine-jewelry company in New York City.
Since she began making her jewelry MacGill has been inspired by the landscape she saw during stays at her family home on Block Island, a small island off the southern coast of Rhode Island where saltbox homes and historic lighthouses perch at the top of craggy cliffs. “Being in nature is the primary source of my inspiration, and what keeps me alive and grounded,” says MacGill.
Looking at her pieces, MacGill seems to capture a bit of the ocean’s essence within the delicate construction of her earrings, necklaces, and rings—both in form and materials. A gleaming white pearl drop on a delicate wire chain, pale teal kyanite earrings, gray and blue organic shapes encased in slender gold bands: it’s as though you could wear the New England coast around your neck.
Now, much of her inspiration comes from different scenery. Years after getting her start in the art world, MacGill recalls a particular afternoon when she spent an hour and a half searching for a parking spot in Brooklyn, growing more frustrated with each circle around the block. “I don’t know what I’m doing here, I don’t have enough space, I’m not surrounded by the things that inspire me,” she recalls feeling. So in 2016, she moved to the Hudson Valley. Living here full time, she has been inspired by the lines of the mountains, and has begun to use different gemstones that reflect the new topography and color palettes: Dark pine tourmaline that looks like a Hudson Valley forest. Sunstone drop earrings, the orange-gold color of the sunset behind a mountain.
Since the move upstate she’s been able to spread out her space, hire more people, and expand her jewelry line, recently beginning to make engagement jewelry. MacGill and a small team hand-make every piece themselves, hammering gold-filled wire and cultivating their semi-precious stone collection, which rotates with the colors of the seasons.
MacGill maintains two storefronts in Germantown and on Block Island, as well as a gallery. In the stores, she sells her jewelry and curated clothing collections. “What we have in the stores is really of the moment, it’s what we’re thinking about, what we’re excited about,” MacGill says.
The clothing collections, both online and in-store, display clothing and accessories made by her favorite designers, featuring dresses, bags, and sunglasses by designers like Anthology Paris, Jesse Kam, and Zii Ropa. MacGill’s curated style is timely and beachy, with items like airy blouses and linen trousers in cobalt blues and soft whites.
In the Germantown gallery, she curates multimedia exhibits of artists whose work she sees as being in conversation with each other. In the current exhibit, “Embodied Era,” abstract sculptures by Ariela Nomi Kuh and paintings by Peter Cusack examine how the human form has been portrayed over time. Cusack is an abstract painter inspired by memory and 19th-century art, while Kuh works in clay with historic silhouettes. “I was interested in both these artists’ interests in the history of how the body impacts space in two vastly different mediums,” MacGill explains. The show is on display through July.
With the inspiration she gets from being in nature and her love of working with fellow artists, the Hudson Valley proves to be the perfect home for MacGill, and the serenity and creativity she feels here is sure to resonate with fellow community members.
