Image by lscentral1@cs.com Maggie Schwartz -Fine Halo Finger Art
Got tickets for Friday or Saturday night extravaganzas at the Charleston fashion week ?It's not all happening on the runways. You will have a chance to visit the Style Lounge and to see the artistry of Maggie Schwartz, ringmaker extraordinaire.
Maggie makes one-of-a-kind rings of fine silver and gold that are wire-wrapped in an ancient style to which she applies cosmopolitan flair and style and does with her incredibly nimble fingers work no commercial jeweler would dare attempt because of the amount of labor involved in the crafting of each ring. Each customer, by virtue of making a purchase from FINE HALO FINGER ART receives a custom made ring and she documents photographically each ring so that it will never be repeated–a concept she believes is part of the value of her work.
She is doing quite well at the Fashion Week and sold 30 rings to a single customer from Atlanta who is an image consultant and immediately recognized the uniqueness of her work.
Her company , Fine Halo Finger Art, can be found on Facebook so that if you want a preview of what she does, a small portion of the nearly 1000 rings she has produced are on display.
Maggie , her husband and son have been residents of Charleston for five years however they make periodic trips to Ecuador, to the Amazon basin, where they own an ecotourism lodge that they built 26 years ago. It is another side to Maggie's rich and diverse life which reflects in her creative vision- as well as her cosmopolitan flair and style.Access the website for the Lodge here:www.laselvajunglelodge.com ("We have almost always run it on a long leash since it became successful and we found reliable staff ," says Maggie ",leaving us free to travel the world until our son began middle school and we decided to make Charleston our home when he matriculated at COFC.")
If you miss Maggie at Fashion Week you can find her selling at the Marion Square Farmer.s Market on Saturdays.The jewelry artist takes a very active role in the craft community of Charleston. Her work, however, has begun to take a meteoric rise and Iit may not be long say customers and admirers, before she takes her rightful place in a larger arena among the great artists in her field .Today's retail price maybe tomorrows' wholesale price.
A ring is a halo for a finger.That's Maggie's motto.