Mary Caroline Colgin of Shreveport, Louisiana, believes jewelry carries meaning long before it is worn, with each piece quietly taking shape well before it is consciously designed.
Story by Cara Clark, Photos by Candace Chaney
Mary Caroline Colgin learned early that jewelry is never just jewelry. The first jewelry she came to love did not belong to her. It lived in her paternal grandmother’s jewelry box, where metal and memory lay side by side, waiting to be handled with care. That care — reverent, curious, unhurried — has followed her since.
“I’ve loved it for as long as I can remember,” Mary Caroline says, tracing the origin back to her paternal grandmother’s jewelry box. “As a very small girl, I was fascinated with it. She used to let me go through her pieces, play with them, and tell me about each one. That’s where the captivation began.”
From the beginning, jewelry by MCS Designs was never about decoration. It was about the story — stories passed down, stories lived, and stories still unfolding across generations and geographies.
As a little girl, Mary Caroline also absorbed the stories of women who came before her. Her maternal grandmother once rode her horse to piano lessons in Nacogdoches, Texas — a detail that lingered in her imagination and quietly shaped her reverence for independence, beauty, and motion. Family roots trace back through the Nashville, Tennessee, area and into Louisiana by way of Texas, with lineage reaching as far back to her fourth great-grandfather, William Hall, the seventh governor of Tennessee and close friend of his predecessor, Sam Houston. These histories are part of the rhythm that moves through her work.
Mary Caroline’s father, who was in the Air Force, expressed a deep appreciation for nature and craftsmanship and gifted Mary Caroline’s mother pieces collected during his travels abroad. Her mother shaped the deeper architecture of the Shreveport, Louisiana-based designer’s creative life.
“My mother was a major force in shaping who I am,” Mary Caroline explains. “She encouraged my creativity and my life path, and she even pushed me to get my pearl certification from the Gemological Institute of America — because we loved pearls. She sewed most of our clothes growing up and even made her own wedding outfits.”
That weddings — two ceremonies in Paris in 1953 — became part of family lore. Mary Caroline’s mother wore a tailored linen suit for the civil ceremony and a silk dress for the church. What stayed with Mary Caroline wasn’t just the romance, but her mother’s ingenuity.
“She had the loveliest taste in fabric, design, and color,” Mary Caroline says. “But more than that, she taught me how to craft something meaningful out of very little. She taught me not to see things as they are, but what they could be. That has served me well in every part of my life.”
That ability to see potential rather than limitation runs through Mary Caroline’s jewelry — and through the partnerships she chooses. Pearls sit beside driftwood. Antler and bone are treated with reverence. Semi-precious stones matter as much for their nuance as their value. Inspiration arrives unpredictably, often through nature.
“I never know where inspiration is going to come from,” Mary Caroline says. “It might be the beach, the woods, a conversation, or a feeling. Sometimes I gather materials and keep them for years before I know what they’re meant to be. It might be something quirky like driftwood or even gator teeth… And when I'm ready to create a statement piece, I reach for design content I've already been dwelling on. I can feel the energy in the materials before the piece ever exists. Nature reminds us that nothing is wasted — everything transforms.”
Movement runs quietly through much of Mary Caroline’s work, shaped by water, wind, wildlife, and the equestrian world. That influence came into clear focus when Louisville, Kentucky–based boutique Two Chicks and Co. invited her to design signature equestrian necklaces for the 2025 Kentucky Derby princesses. After discovering the perfect pink dresses, the boutique asked her to create jewelry worthy of the occasion.
She answered with pink chinoiserie beads paired with a brass pendant — a piece that felt rooted in tradition yet light on its feet.
“Because of owners Karen, Alison, and Barbara, my jewelry had a presence during the Kentucky Derby,” Mary Caroline says. “It was a fantastic experience I will never forget. I have also had the privilege of designing Kevin’s Catalog’s bobwhite quail logo into a necklace. Together, we created a pendant and incorporated it into several pieces. That was a great honor.”
Mary Caroline’s approach to design has always been guided less by material value and more by instinct. She says her design process is about being true to herself and “translating what’s in my soul into something tangible.”
“The value of the material is often inconsequential,” she says. “If it has an unusual nuance or a certain je ne sais quoi, it’s probably for me.”
That authenticity opened doors she never planned but deeply cherished. Last December, meaning took on a more profound gravity. Mary Caroline lost her mother one week before Christmas in 2025.
“I lost my precious mother one week before Christmas in 2025. She was the love of my life and my best friend,” Mary Caroline says. “Losing her changed everything. She went through the ultimate door, and I will follow her one day. Until then, I have work to do.”
That loss reframed the symbolism behind Mary Caroline’s pinnacle piece: the Door of Hope Necklace. Long before it existed physically, doors began appearing everywhere — in scripture, in travel, in artwork, in moments that felt impossible to ignore. The presence crystallized in her most meaningful creation.
“Everything in life is a door,” Mary Caroline explains. “Some open easily. Some close painfully. And some have to be shut so better ones can open — from our first breath to our last.”
Originally designed as a reminder for others, the door became her own point of contact through grief, transition, and courage.
“I thought I was creating it for my customers,” Mary Caroline says. “I didn’t know I would be the one living the story of the door. My divorce was a door I had to close. And then my mother — she went through the ultimate door. The necklace reminds me that hope is real, even when it hurts.”
Nature is both refuge and collaborator. Antler, shell, and pearl carry life cycles that Mary Caroline feels viscerally in her hands.
“Antler and bone are incredibly beautiful materials,” Mary Caroline explains. “I can feel the cycle of life and energy pulse through the pieces as I design them. If we ever lack inspiration, all we have to do is pick up a rock, a leaf, a feather, or look at the ocean or the stars. The inspiration is infinite.”
Some of the people touched by her work are close to her; others she will never meet. When she unexpectedly encounters her jewelry being worn by strangers, the moment feels emotional.
“It’s unbelievable to pass someone wearing my jewelry,” Mary Caroline says. “It’s the biggest compliment and incredibly humbling. I think, wow — she could have worn anything today, and she chose a piece of mine. I was at a funeral recently and noticed a woman wearing pearl earrings. I recognized it immediately. I hope people feel their very best when they wear my jewelry. It can anchor how we feel throughout the day. We don’t need it — we choose it. It becomes emotional. It becomes part of how we move through the world.”
Community has sustained Mary Caroline — family, siblings, friends, customers, artisans, and collaborators who have helped her bring ideas to life and move forward when strength felt thin. As she steps into a new chapter, she does so with clarity and resolve. Some doors are behind her now. Others are opening wide.
“My family, friends, customers, and collaborators have been everything,” Mary Caroline says. “From outdoorsmen and mechanics to artists and pearl experts, they’ve helped me think differently and aim higher. There may be nothing new under the sun, but there’s always a different way to use it.”
Her hope for legacy is simple and profound: that people feel special wearing her jewelry, that it means something personal, that it offers comfort, confidence, or courage when needed most.
“I want to be remembered for using the gifts God gave me,” Mary Caroline says. “He created a magnificent world. I’m honoring it one piece of jewelry at a time.”
And always, threaded through it all, is her mother — present in every pearl, every unconventional choice, every act of beauty made from less than expected. In Mary Caroline Colgin’s world, jewelry isn’t only a fabulous way to adorn a life well lived. It walks alongside her through opening doors.
