Who hasn’t reached a fork in the road and been presented with options, or unfortunately sometimes relatively few options? For Nantucket’s prestigious jewelry designer Susan Lister Locke, life’s journey has presented several moments of reflection, consideration and ultimately choices. Lister Locke’s path to her current state of creating luxurious, gemstone-encrusted works of art was anything but pre-determined. Today, when you walk into Susan Lister Locke’s eponymous gallery on Easy Street—yes it is actually on Easy Street—it will surprise some to find that her road to success was anything but easy.

Visitors to the gallery, with its gray weathered shingled exterior which  stands in direct juxtaposition to the bright, sunlit interior, will find it warm, welcoming and brimming with glimmering and colorful creations that delight the senses. Lister Locke greets clients with her inimitable warmth and gracious smile, beaming as she discusses her process for creating such unique and distinctive designs. 

“A lot of people will start with drawings, come up with a design, and have stones cut to fit those designs,” she says. “For me, the inspiration comes from the stones and materials themselves. They influence what the final piece can be, and how it will emerge. I take all that in. Sometimes it is a bit of a puzzle, but it is only through considering their potential for how they can best be showcased, that I am able to understand their story.” That story Lister Locke touches on is not only how the elements of her custom designs evolve and find their own harmony, but also the story of the clients for whom she is designing. Her creative artistry is initially sparked by the personally individualized accounts and details her clients share with...