
The Designer
MΛRY JEΛN founder and designer, Mary Jean Treloar, grew up with a “curious mind, creative hands and a love of geology.” While learning how to set a gemstone handpicked from the African soil – during one of her many geological explorations with her father –into Sterling silver, Mary-Jean unearthed a spark for jewellery design and manufacture. It remained simply a spark, a hobby she dabbled in while she completed a BSc degree in Interior Architecture at Pretoria University, relief managed a prestigious 5-star luxury Safari lodge and put her qualification to work in the Corporate Architecture industry. Inevitably, the spark ‘became a wild fire that she couldn’t ignore’. So, she stopped ignoring it and embraced it wholeheartedly, completing a short beginners’ course in Jewellery – ‘to learn the basics’ – before embarking on a self-taught journey of design and manufacture that affords her the opportunity to learn, design and create truly handcrafted jewellery everyday.