Ousmane Macina

Ousmane Macina represents 10 generations of jewelers from Mali, West Africa. He began his career as a jeweler at the ripe age of 7 years old. Learning traditional techniques from his father in the family workshop, a young Ousmane worked with his hands, creating one of a kind pieces through generational techniques of melting, twisting and hammering metals.

After falling in love, Ousmane and his wife decided to move to her home country of America, where he continued his craft as an independent jeweler.

For over four decades, Ousmane has been traveling the world selling his pieces & passing his craft to his daughter. He’s perfected intricate techniques native to his country, and strived to contemporize and adapt traditional West African pieces for women all around the world. 

Ousmane’s humble beginnings inspired him to give back. Using the profits from his pieces he started an artist center dedicated to teaching locals jewelry making in his hometown of Bamako, Mali. Jewelry making is traditionally a male-dominated craft, but Ousmane wanted to flip the script and make this center inclusive to all.