We recently launched two beautiful new necklaces crafted by Meg C Gallery. Meet the talented artist behind the design.
We first met Meg Carroll, better known as the incomparable Meg C., when she brought in a gold-plated, Kentucky-shaped necklace and suggested that it might do well in the shop.
The Kentucky necklaces – each individually crafted and finished – have since become a signature piece for many women who like wear their state pride close to their heart.
A distinctive set of gold-plated chicken-bone earrings followed, and now Meg is at it again with two new necklaces designed exclusively for Kentucky for Kentucky. The necklaces – a Y'ALL pendant and a #KENTUCKY design, both in gold – are currently available in the online shop as well as at the Kentucky for Kentucky Fun Mall at 720 Bryan Ave. in Lexington.
Meg studied fashion merchandising at the London College of Fashion, and pursued metal work and jewelry design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.
She's been making jewelry professionally for nearly a decade, and moved to Lexington five years ago with a boyfriend who was relocating for a job. While the relationship fizzled, Meg fell for Kentucky instead. She founded the Meg C Jewelry Gallery in downtown Lexington in 2012.
"I've really grown to love it," she says of her adopted hometown. "I've met some great people, there's a good art scene, and the community has embraced me and the shop."
She traces her love for fashion and design to her childhood growing up in Long Island, New York.
"I've always loved jewelry," she says. "My grandma had a big, red purse filled with costume jewelry that she'd pull out every time I came over. I'd play dress up for hours; dress my dad up in jewelry, my mom, my grandma – everybody. She'd always switch out a few of the pieces so there was a surprise in there every time."
It makes you walk a little taller when you're wearing a badass piece of jewelry.
That sense of whimsy and discovery is evident in Meg's work today. She'll often start with a distinctive element or idea – a particularly beautiful stone, for example, or even a fossilized piece of coral or other interesting object – and figure out how to best show it off.
She typically sketches her designs on paper and traces them directly onto sheet metal, cutting each out by hand in her workshop at the back of her gallery, or else carves a design from jeweler's wax and makes a metal casting before polishing it up and setting stones. She even recently created a pair of sterling-silver hand grenade cufflinks modeled after an accessory taken from a G.I. Joe action figure.
Although there's a considerable amount of time and effort that goes into each piece – especially in the one-of-a-kind custom designs Meg enjoys creating for clients – she stresses that even her most high-end pieces are meant to be worn and enjoyed; not locked up in a display case or a jewelry box.
"You don't have to be dressed up to wear a beautiful piece of jewelry," she says. "I'm a big fan of T-shirts and jeans and heels, but then add a fabulous pearl necklace and you look completely different.
"You can change your whole look just by switching out jewelry – dress it up or down – and a signature piece can become the focal point of your whole ensemble," she says. "Plus, it makes you walk a little taller when you're wearing a badass piece of jewelry."
Visit Meg C Jewelry Gallery at 119 N. Mill St. in Lexington and online at megcgallery.com.
Find the new Y'ALL and #KENTUCKY necklaces in the shop.