Thoroughly Modern Maria Canale Shares What’s Next for Her Fine Jewelry Designs

“Grand Voyages in the 1920s were modern, high-style and adventurous. This spirit infuses my new collection,” says Canale who adds that Voyager features German walnut woods shaped in round disks or beads, 18K yellow gold beads and green tourmaline, blue topaz, smoky topaz and rhodalites.

As part of a creative exploration, Canale has sketched a tabletop line, which would be a a natural extension to Voyager given the shapes and materials used in her latest collection.

I distinctly recall the first time I met Maria Canale. We met for a perfect espresso at the Southgate restaurant in The Essex House with a view out to Central Park. The day was a gray, rainy scene that gave a familiar fogginess to the City of New York. All the while, the sidewalks of this bustling city were bursting with pedestrians with a purpose, no matter the rain. Canale walked in, wearing a charcoal-gray cape-like trench and carrying a chic, black Prada handbag that could double for a briefcase if your business is to carry a sketchpad. Designers have a signature style that I’ve always admired, and if a woman could resemble my version of America’s most metropolitan city it was her. Even her New York accent had an elegance I wanted to emulate.

It would be almost four years later that I would see her at the Couture Show in Las Vegas with her latest collections, and I was flattered to be recognized by her. Once again, her personal style spoke to her incredible talent as a designer, and I perused the latest collection which was among my favorites of the show.

For two and a half decades, Canale’s been in the jewelry design limelight, designing important jewelry for the world’s biggest luxury brands like Tiffany & Co., Mikimoto and Harry Winston. Today, Maria Canale jewelery features her worldly eye for sophisticated design, available through independent jewelers and luxury retailers.

“People ask me, ‘What’s your hobby?’ and this is it. It’s my career, my hobby, and I feel really lucky to have that. I don’t think about retiring, because why would I want to? I love doing this. I think it’s a gift,” she says.

“When I launched my brand about six years ago I traveled to meet with the customers, and people would say to me that it sounded exhausting. I actually loved it. I am not a salesperson, but I love to meet the clients, and it’s great to hear the feedback,” she says.

That feedback and her never-ending source for inspiration, nature, informs her design. “My design is somewhat architectural, and I tend to break things down by four. I’ll look at shapes and forms and then what you can do with those shapes and forms. I don’t work on a computer. I work by hand. I’m in the category of writers who still use a typewriter. And I am very hands-on with the craftsmen,” she says.

Working with patterns, mostly circles, dots and balls, is a big thing for Canale, who attributes those shapes to the success of the Deco period. “If you go back to some of the early works, that’s what makes them so timeless,” says Canale, who also strives for a timeless design aesthetic.

Her personal style is much the same. She describes it as clean, classic and simple, and gravitates toward designers like Carolina Herrera. She stays away from prints and prioritizes looking for outfits that work with her accessories.

“For the people that buy my jewelry, it’s about something that feels really good to wear. When you wear it, you don’t feel it on; it’s just part of you. And I could say that the Flapper collection definitely fits that bill so well because that ball and chain is so sleek and sort of sexy, and it really feels good,” she says.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: BREATHTAKING BAUBLES

So what’s next for the designer? She just opened up a new location and feels more at home than ever before. “It’s got a marble fireplace and a great area to sit. From that, what I’d like to do is start designing other products, with a feel and, let’s say, honesty of what I’ve been doing to bring to personal products, like items for the home.”

And, unsurprisingly, this is feeding her inspiration. “In our new office, you definitely feel like you’re in the Old New York; it’s pretty. That’s very romantic to me. I think New York, when you’re here on a daily basis and you’re walking around, you’re part of that energy. I love that. I don’t think I could ever give up living in New York totally because I think it feeds you, it really does feed you.”