Mary first began working for a private jeweler as his office manager/bookkeeper in 1987. The jeweler was out of town quite often and Mary found herself designing a lot of the custom jewelry pieces. She quickly fell in love with jewelry and jewelry design. After much encouragement from her husband, she began to take classes at Rensselaer County Center of the Arts/HVCC. She quickly learned how to design jewelry and the ins and outs of creating jewelry.

Once Mary had taken all the courses she could, she opened her own business. She began doing repair and custom design work for different jewelry stores. Mary jumped at the chance when friends of hers opened a gallery in Watervliet and offered her the opportunity to show her work. Within 3 months Mary was their #1 seller. It was the first time that she had designed jewelry just for fun and without a specific person in mind. Her love of jewelry design flourished and she started to ease out of jewlery repair and began apprenticing with several local jewelers.

After spending many years learning the jewelery business, Mary was asked to teach at the very same place that had started her jewelry career - the Rensselaer County Center of the Arts. She has taught over 20 different classes in jewelry design for the Center of the Arts. Mary has also taught at the Ark's after school arts program, Shenendehowa High School's Continuing Education program, the New Visions program, several small classes for the Girl Scouts.

Mary now has her jewelry in many different stores and galleries such as Elissa Halloran Design on Lark St. in Albany, the Albany Institute of History and Art, Departures Gallery at the Albany Airport, Trink Gallery in Troy, and Hummingbird Designs in Troy. Examples of Mary's jewelry can also be seen on her website: MaryWheelerDesigns.com.