Hi! I’m Fiona McKay and I’m both a goldsmith and a jewelry-designer. I come from a family of scientists, which makes me the indisputable artistic free spirit of the clan!
I started trying on my grandma’s costume jewelry when I was four. By six, I made my own jewelry, using old beads and buttons from my grandma’s button box. My mom and my grandma were my first paying clients ☺. And that was just the beginning! Thanks to their handicraft skills, I learned painting and needlework. During my high school years, I studied art and took metal-working classes after school at a local crafts center. I had the privilege of traveling to Ireland, where I worked as a volunteer on several archeological digs. There I fell in love with Celtic, Viking, and other ancient artifacts and jewelry.
Back at home, I continued following my dream. I attended FIT, where I earned my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in jewelry design, and graduated with a portfolio of over eighty pieces of jewelry. I’d barely begun my college career, when I had the unique opportunity of meeting an amazing antiquities expert who bought my very first piece of jewelry and who was kind enough to carry my line on consignment in her antique shop. Thanks to her, word of mouth sold my pieces and grew my collections. Between those sales and what I earned at my job at a SoHo boutique, I was able to open my own studio and launch my own brand: Fiona McKay Jewelry.
Being Irish and loving all things Celtic, I followed my creative muse to the homeland of my ancestors, crafting my original Celtic-influenced line you’ll see on my website. At the same time, I’ve always been a lover of nature, which took me and my designs in a whole new, and equally exciting direction depicting fire and color. So I’ve become very eclectic in my tastes, something I think my jewelry lines reflect.
I’ve just reached a milestone birthday myself (s-h-h-h!), and I’m celebrating with all of you by introducing these exciting new pieces! You’ll find them all right inside my website, hand-crafted and ready for purchase. I can’t wait to hear your reactions!
I hope you love everything you see and that you’ll come back and visit often, since I have new inspirations that become new pieces all the time. If you’d like to receive updates from me on new designs, please sign up for my email list. (I won’t spam you or sell your name to others.)