Hi, I’m Megan, the faceter behind Szczecko.

My love of gemstones began with my love of jewelry, passed down to me by my very Southern mother. I was born and raised in Georgia, the daughter of a Polish immigrant father and a Southern mother—hence my distinctive last name and the name of my business.

My mom was the beginning of my jewelry journey. She embodied both Southern charm and warmth, with a refined appreciation for Danish modern jewelry. I still wear her Georg Jensen bracelet and ring as part of my daily uniform. Her eye for design inspired my own from the start.

The gem-cutting part came later.

I left Georgia for Seattle to study photography. Over the years, I moved from Seattle to New York City to Annecy, France, and finally back to Seattle, taking jewelry courses all along the way. I kept coming back to my first love: design, expressed through jewelry. But traditional jewelry-making never quite fulfilled the kind of maker I am.

Seven years ago, after becoming a mother and feeling creatively unfulfilled, I took a cabochon class to reconnect with making. That class led me to gemstone faceting and I was instantly hooked. I was drawn to the idea of precision, of cutting the perfect gem. But as I continued, I discovered something deeper: the perfection wasn’t in the flawlessness of the stone, but in the process itself.

Faceting became a way to reveal what was already inherently beautiful. Inclusions and fractures stopped being flaws, they became features to highlight. For me, the real allure of the gemstone is in the transformation.

I currently reside in Seattle, Washington with my daughter, where I cut gemstones daily and am pursuing my Graduate Gemologist diploma through the Gemological Institute of America (GIA).