Collector Feature: Maren Mullin on At Present.

Meet Maren Mullin, Gallery MAR owner, wife, mom–and serious jewelry aficionado. We love that she celebrates major moments by gifting herself a piece of jewelry: whether she chooses a ring from a local Park City designer after closing a big deal at work or earrings to commemorate personal growth, we’re all about Mullin’s approach to jewelry At Present.

“I dated my husband for a really long time before he proposed,” she explains. “So I started buying myself important jewelry, and it always just felt like a win-win. Women shouldn’t have to wait for important times in their lives to purchase jewelry for themselves,” she continues.

Mullin doesn’t like the idea that people, especially women, often think that the only time they should get a diamond ring is when they get engaged, or that they have to wait for a big birthday for special earrings.

“It leads to a lot of expectations that aren’t healthy for men or women. Any time that you can afford to support other women [by buying from female designers] is a win-win.”

Mullin recently worked with At Present’s personal shopper Rachel–who happens to be a personal friend and collector at Gallery MAR–to design a custom Bleecker & Prince Constellation Necklace.

“I love working with artists,” Mullin explains. “The minute that I saw the arrangements from Bleecker, I understood that [Leehe Segal] is an artist. I felt an immediate connection to the work.”

While typically she likes to support local artists and designers in Park City and Carmel where her galleries are located, when Rachel introduced her to Bleecker & Prince, she was excited about the idea of customizing a pendant to represent her family.

“I had been looking for something to honor my family,” she remembers. “We have two really smart girls, I wanted a piece that would capture that. The [Bleecker & Prince] necklaces are what caught my eye–they look like constellations. I thought, ‘why couldn’t I customize [a pendant] with my husband’s astrological constellation, and add my daughters’ birthstones?”

So she did just that. After approving initial sketches, her final pendant is true to her original vision: the Gemini constellation honors her husband’s astrological sign, an emerald for her five-year-old born in May, citrine for her almost-eight-year-old, and an amethyst–Mullin’s own birthstone.

“This necklace reminds me of something that my grandmother would have worn,” Mullin says. “She lived to be 106, and had an incredible jewelry collection. As she was aging, she would invite me and my cousins to come by, and she loved to let us pick [a piece of jewelry] and see the joy it would bring us.”

She looks forward to passing down her own jewelry to her daughters one day–including her new pendant.

Her daughters are already taking full advantage of the family jewelry tradition, though: her older daughter is into jewelry-making, and her five-year-old loves to go through and pick out the jewelry that Mullin should wear on a given day.

“I love to get dressed up,” Mullin adds.

Even during COVID, she put on jewelry and makeup–whatever she felt good and confident in. So much of her job is about beauty and aesthetics, she explains, and feels that it’s important to reflect this.

“I’m not a saver when it comes to jewelry,” she adds. “I don’t put my fine pieces away, I wear all my favorite pieces all the time.”

We are so happy we were able to work with Mullin to create her newest special, everyday piece. If you’re looking to design your own Constellation Necklace, please reach out to Rachel.

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Tags: at present, Maren Mullin, Park City Jewelry
Posted in Park City Life