The Best of North Carolina, South Carolina and Beyond.

return to Connoisseur HomePage

Linda MacNeil has been crafting jewelry since age ten, when she made wire "hippie designs" to sell in her hometown of Hanover, NH. Her father designed machinery and her mother designed clothing, so her artistic talent is genetic (and remarkable). She studied metalsmithing at the Rhode Island School of Design.

At right, MacNeil's Lucent Line Necklace.

Even in her early work, she was looking to combine metal with other materials. Glass is one of her favorite media, especially combined with gold. Some early works include Art Deco inspired glass vases and hand mirrors with fanciful handles and oblique angles. She uses every kind of glass—from plate glass and mirrors to Waterford crystal—to create striking designs.

Starting in the 1980s with vitrolite (opaque plate glass), she made colorful necklaces by attaching glass elements with gold plates and screws. She even devised a method of making gold screws to assemble her pieces. Lucent Lines is a collection incorporating polished and faceted glass and mirror elements.

She found a book of Napoleonic etchings in the late 1980s which, along with Lalique and Art Deco, inspired the Neck Collar series. Ancient Egyptian, African and Celtic influences are seen in these works. The Neck Collars are often unconventional square and oval shapes, with glass pendants, sometimes etched, in beautiful colors and multiple layers.

Sometimes to get inspired, she will make a piece for herself. Egyptian Sparrow started this way, and she has sold six of them. All are slightly different, so you won't see a carbon copy on another woman.

Her stylized symmetry and geometry borrow from nature in the beautiful Floral Necklace series She loves the shapes of nature and considers a flower bud a perfect design form. "Nature has already mastered the mechanics. My challenge is to interpret the plant and to make a piece of jewelry," says MacNeil. One early piece, Tropical Flower, is not in the collection because "the owner won't lend it." She is so attached to her MacNeil necklace that she cannot bear to do without it.

A book of her designs, United in Beauty: The Jewelry and Collectors of Linda MacNeil, showcases many of her pieces modeled by their very proud owners. The Mesh Necklace series of the mid-1990s uses gold mesh rope with pate de verre (antique cast art glass) pendants. These pendants are large and look like something Cleopatra or Nefertiti would wear. Many of the pendant drops detach as brooches from the neckpiece.

From a residency at Waterford Crystal in Ireland (1998-99), Ms. MacNeil began using lead crystal glass in her works. Lotus Necklace, featured on the cover of her book, is owned by the Mint Museum of Craft + Design, as is Nile Midnight (pictured at left above).

MMC+D has received national inquiries about this show, and feels it will be a successful touring collection. If you are a fan of architecture, Art Deco or jewelry, this is a must-see. My descriptions cannot do her amazing constructions and meticulous detail justice; you simply must see the collection for yourself.

-Jan Snead