MARIQUITA ’ S MAGICAL LIFE OUR TOWN ’ S JEWELER IS A TRUE GEM
By Carla Valencia de Martinéz | Photography by Collin Kelly
Tucked into a nook in a pocket park in historic River Oaks sits an English Tudor-style house filled with enough soul to last many lives . No tabletop is clear . There are objects throughout – mementos of a well-lived life . Jeweler MARIQUITA MASTERSON explains , “ We did tabletop things in Mexico . This is a garlic . That ’ s a little mustard spoon . I have all kind of wonderful things here . I don ’ t know what everything is , but it ’ s nice . That ’ s a handle for something …”
We are here to talk about Mariquita ’ s career designing and creating her eponymous collection of glass jewelry , which began in 1983 . ( Right from the beginning , it was embraced by women like PATTY HUBBARD , NINA WICKMAN , CAROLINE LAW and a few of the BUSH clan .) Little did we know , we were in for a treat because she was really sharing a peek into her charmed life , a life she ’ s created .
Born in Mexico City , where she attended university before coming to Houston , Mariquita met STUART MASTERSON at a deb party and married him in 1957 . They had five children – and while I am there ( on two different visits ), she was fielding phone calls from any one of them . They are all involved in some capacity with the business . “ CHARLES manufactures / fabricates wonderful furniture that he designs , so he ’ s involved by making furniture for the studio . STUART , the oldest , was instrumental in setting it up as a business . And HARRY is a partner – he ’ s designed some things that are wonderful . Of course , LIBBY is there a lot . GEORGE is the money man of the family . He ’ s not into the arts . He ’ s very practical . And my granddaughter NINA is the manager . It ’ s small and it ’ s nice .”
As the fairy tale in jewelry-making goes , Mariquita was meeting with stained glass artist DAN EBERDALE in a little shop on Waugh . She had commissioned him to create about 250 votives in the style of Calder for a Museum of Fine Arts , Houston Gala she was co-chairing when she noticed squiggles of glass on the shop floor . Eberdale remembers Mariquita wandering around the shop , seeing something on the floor , and she said , “ Gosh , this would make cool jewelry . And that was it .”
Remembers Mariquita , “ I really didn ’ t know anything about jewelry-making . I didn ’ t know how to make jewelry . I didn ’ t know anything about glass . But I figured , that ’ s how you do things .” She took classes , went to Pilchuck ( Glass School ) one year , and to Corning ( Museum of Glass ) several years . “ I was able to go for a few weeks at a time , because the children were older . And I was really happy that I had gotten married , had the children and then I could play with the jewelry .”
Today , the collection is available through her store on River Oaks Boulevard , TOOTSIES and Julian Gold . “ It hasn ’ t grown very large because family was first . I guess I could have done something and been marketed and done all sorts of things like a David Yurman , but you know I wasn ’ t interested in that . I didn ’ t want to mess up what I have here and have to really be so focused on it . It was perfect .” We ’ d have to agree .
50 LOCAL | november 16