Winifred Mason

Winifred Mason (January 31, 1912 – 1993) was a Caribbean-American jeweler who was active in New York during the 1940s. She worked primarily in copper, and was inspired by West Indian cultural traditions. She is believed to be the first commercial Black jeweler in the United States.

Mason received a BS in English Literature in 1934, and went on to receive a MA in education from New York University in 1936. In the early 1940s, Mason taught youth metalworking skills at Junior Achievement, where she met Art Smith.

Career in teaching After graduating, Mason hesitated to begin her career as a teacher, and she worked for a while as a teacher for the WPA and later as a crafts instructor at the Harlem Boys Club, but she chose another way as her life career. Mason received a grant from the Rosenwald Fund to "gather folk material and basic art patterns used by the West Indian Negro and to express these feelings in jewelry." This research included time in Haiti, where she met her husband, Jean Chenet.

Studio and jewelry

Her first piece of jewelry appeared in 1940, and it was a pendant in bronze, copper, and silver. It had to be of great interest among her friends and soon she began to get orders for the similar pieces. Mason never repeated her works and every piece she made was unique. When she could not find a proper instrument to use in her work, she made it herself. Much of the jewelry was custom-made, and clientele included Billie Holiday. After marrying, Mason spent much of her time in Haiti. Under her married name, Winifred Chenet, she sold "voodoo-inspired" jewelry there. She also operated a store in New York selling Haitian art.

Mason Chenet was later active in championing other female black artists. She was honored by Girls Friends, an organization for black women, in 1990. She had served as a vice president of their Brooklyn chapter in 1939. Mason Chenet died in 1993.