Born in Texas then raised in Hong Kong, Daniel McKinney first gained exposure to rough gems as a child hiking with his father in the misty mountains above the bustling city. His father, an avid rockhound and a university gemologist, taught him about the material origins and aesthetic qualities of uncut stones. Using rock hammers, they collected specimens of crystalline quartz, deep red garnet and iron pyrite. These excursions sparked his lifelong passion for gemstones and set him on a course to work with them throughout his storied career as an artist and jewelry designer.
In the early 1980s, McKinney learned to source and cut rough gemstones himself, becoming a supplier for local Hong Kong jewelers and eventually establishing his own gem cutting factory. Initially serving clients from Idar Oberstein, the gemstone cutting capital of Germany, he honed his skills in cutting a wide array of gems like tourmaline, garnet, topaz, and amethyst. His association with Sharper Image, a pioneering retail company of the 1980s founded by Richard Talheimer in San Francisco, further propelled his career as a prominent jewelry designer and supplier. In the early 90’s he became the leading silver and gold accent jewelry designer in Japan, operating under the playful nom de guerre, Daniel Le Duc.
Expanding his reach beyond jewelry in fine arts and sculpture, McKinney partnered with John Connally, the former Governor of Texas and began creating large, bespoke gemstone carvings exploring Western themes like cowboys and horses and selling through Connally’s private network and several galleries across the South West. A notable departure from his Cowboy motif was his crafting a sprawling, ornate Chinese mountain scene from a very large “Table Top’’ aquamarine crystal acquired from Nigeria, which, when finished, was purchased by Warren Buffett’s company, Borshein’s, in 1988. To this day Daniel still thrives at the intersection of Eastern and Western aesthetics, fusing the spirit of his Texan origins and his childhood in South East Asia.
In 1998, McKinney seized the opportunity to acquire a giant blue sapphire discovered in Madagascar. This acquisition led to the creation of the Millennium Sapphire, a monumental tribute to humanity’s achievements over 5000 years of history, recognized as the world’s largest gem-quality sapphire by Guinness World Records in 2001.
Today, a Rennaissance man, through and through, McKinney divides his time between West Texas and South East Asia, frequently traveling to far corners of the world to source new gems. You might even catch him driving along the dusty backroads of the Southwest in his 1999 classic Porsche 911.