I’m MK Byrne.
I’m an explorer, and my favorite way to travel is by making things. giphy
To me, an adventure means getting to know your limitations, then setting out to test the possibilities.
There are the limitations I can choose: Which materials to use, where to get them, and how to put them together. I use durable materials that will stand the test of time and engineer my designs to last through every day’s adventure.
Limitations are also meant to be tested: my own skill and effort to refine a design. I am always tinkering to find new ways of doing things.
Then, the greatest non-negotiable limitation and my favorite artist: time! Time makes me decide between one path and another, and gives meaning to the choice. Time carries me forward when I want to get lost in detail. Time itself creates beauty through weathering and decay. Time tells stories through the treasures those who have come before leave behind to inspire us.
From the first, I collected rocks and flowers. When I was two, my dear ol’ dad retired and so my parents took an 11 month RV trip from Florida to Alaska, making my first memories of home in one on wheels. We settled in Missouri, where my mom taught me a dedicated work ethic and my dad taught me to hit a nail on the head as soon as I could hold a hammer.
I’ve been exploring and tinkering ever since.
I have walked a winding path since leaving the Midwest - traveling to nearly two dozen countries. After graduating business school in 2013, I worked as manager of a small gift boutique and then as assistant to a woman I consider to be a great aesthete and mentor of mine - Elaine. She curates an art gallery and fine jewelry store, GLADSTONE.
While working, I started my first business, WILD & FREE. I would get up in the wee hours to make a few more pieces before heading into downtown Boston to sell under a tent at outdoor arts markets.
Since 2015, I’ve sold thousands of hand made pieces to people I’ve met from all over the world. I was able to make my creative life my full time job in 2017.
In September of 2019, the winds of fate came to meet me, and I opened my retail location within the Boston Public Market. It was called thePACK, recognizing that the endeavor would need a team to make it happen.
I’m now building a new business from the pieces I gathered over the years.
BYRNE BRIGHTLY is my offering of finding light in dark times, and sharing the epic journey home.
circa 1992 - fascinated by the jewels
Dad showing me some plans
2015 - one of my first outdoor shows. I made the sign from a scrap of wall paper and the table covering was old fabric. Confession: I got all the beads at Michael's.
2017 - displays have been upgraded, and my jewelry business is my full-time job.
2019 - permanent location downtown within the Boston Public Market.
2020 - made myself some diamond earrings
circa 1991 - hardworking mama teaching me to go after my dreams
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“Truthfully, though, I had no idea how all my tangents could come together.”
“I’ve learned things going “smoothly” is just a matter of perspective. I consider the day went smoothly if I was able to handle the unexpected and have a laugh about it later! But no matter how tired, frustrated or confused I get, I remind myself that there’s nothing else I’d rather be doing. It’s the struggles that make it rewarding and the unpredictability that keeps it interesting.”
“I am incredibly grateful to be born into a time when women don’t have to ask permission. I think one of the biggest barriers to female leadership is something anyone can struggle with – sometimes, we get caught up asking ourselves for permission to do what would make us most fulfilled.”
BOSTON VOYAGER, May 2018