About

Mary Risley

“As soon as I finish a piece, I put it on and see how it feels and moves. I love that jewelry is wearable art that is a visual extension of our personality. It’s one of the only art forms that we take with us wherever we go.”

When designing a piece, Mary arranges the components to see the interaction of positive and negative spaces. Her interests lie in imperfection, preferring scratched metal surfaces & naturally flawed stones.   She seeks out stones with unexpected  asymmetry to complement her silver forms. 

Mary's primary focus in undergrad was on sculpture and ceramics. But when she learned how to work with metal, she quickly fell in love with the medium and went on to study jewelry design intensively at the Penland School of Crafts. 

Mary works from her studio in the vibrant community of Northampton, Massachusetts.  

photo credit: Lindsay McCrea Photography