Marla Aaron's Rolling Spheres

Often, I find jewelry - even fine jewelry - to be a marketing ploy. While I think designs like the Tiffany Love line and the Van Cleef Alhambras and even the Chanel Cocos are intuitively noticeable, I’m not sure if the designs in and of themselves warrant the price tags that they’re associated with. At those price ranges, I would hope that it would be something… well, rather spectacular.

Enter Marla Aaron, who I’m convinced is a modern day sorcerer. The brand is this exquisite mix of childlike fantasy and adult opulence (which, to be fair, makes sense considering that you do have to be a functioning adult with steady cash flow to afford these pieces). It’s the stuff that you imagine fantasy fiction series to be written about, where a rag-tag team of misfits go through a series of progressively more difficult plot hurdles to end up at the coveted lost treasure - a diadem or a bracelet imbued with some incredible power. Or it’s the mystery item you find rolling around your eccentric late great grand aunt’s basement vaults, whereupon you discover that she was, in fact, lost royalty of some ilk.

Originally I started following the brand because carabiner locks had been on my mind for a little while (the collection is here), as they’re a stunning way to add and customize charms on a chain - but recently I’ve seen videos reposted of their rolling spheres, and let me say - I would genuinely take up metalsmithing and gemology to fully understand and appreciate these. Here, the settings are done in such a way that the individual gems are suspended. They’re freely moving and a different tangent to the usual kinetic rings previously seen.

The line contains rings, pendants, and an eye-wateringly priced tennis bracelet (yes, they list the price, and yes, usually at this level most retailers would have said “price upon inquiry”, but alas. Could you buy a sizeable piece of farmland with this money? Yes.):

Inspiration - Striped Knits

I knit, but that doesn’t stop knitwear in general from being one of my favourite clothing items to shop. Unless, of course, it happens to be wildly, impossibly, exorbitantly expensive.

Case in point - this gorgeous navy and white striped knit sweater with the most interesting purl detailing. I’m sure it was ridiculously priced, as I hadn’t the prescience then to take notes on where it was from (this is because the pricing must have made me conclude I would never actually buy the thing, even if it were on sale). Reverse Google Image Search is giving me a beanie, and much more mass produced version from Isabel Marant.

And look, I get it - I do, I also knit - knitters and handmade textile workers need to be paid an amount commensurate to their labour. But I’m also, you know, not made of money. I figure that a sweater for my size is usually 8-9 skeins of yarn, and at the upper end of the price rang for the yarn that I buy ($12), that’s about $96-108. Plus a ~$10 pattern? Since this is a hobby (#girlmath) the labour is free. Right? Right. So at most I’m willing to spend $120 on a sweater, unless it has some sort of detailing I don’t find fun to do, or it’s made of cashmere. Cardigans are lumped into this; coatigans are not.

Hence! I found the Turenne Sweater by Mille Strikker. And, dare I say it? I think the details on this pattern are superior to the one on the inspiration. It’s certainly not the same - but the vibes are there.

I am intending to, at some point, follow the pattern to a T in some sort of a green/pink colourway (something bright and clashing! It’ll be odd, it’ll be beautiful). And then, to satiate the desire for a navy colourway a la the inspiration, make amendments to the pattern such that it gives a block of blue colour that ends right before the bust.

Jo Malone - Dark Amber & Ginger Lily

Perfumer Andrea Lupo

Top Notes ginger, black cardamom, pink pepper
Middle Notes waterlily, orchid, jasmine, rose
Base Notes sandalwood, black amber, kyara incense, leather, patchouli

When it comes to recommending perfumes, I always tell people to get a dabbler. And, unless you’re the type to have just one or two signature scents, always go for the smallest bottle possible. The average human will barely ever get through more than a handful of full-sized perfumes in their lifetime.

Case in point: this one by Jo Malone was one of my first perfumes ever, full stop. And I bought it over a decade ago. I pull her out every time there’s a crisp bite in the air, and am not particularly sparing when I wear it. I bought this before JM started making smaller sizes for their cologne intense line, otherwise I think I would have opted for that instead.

I adore this. There’s a TikTok trend in the fragrance sphere where people recommend the scents that get them chased down and complimented by men - which, I’m sorry, seems like an absolute nightmare to me?? Why do people want that? Dark Amber is one where I think other women may appreciate it best. You’re greeted with some sweet patchouli, some amber - white florals and a warm-ish ginger note, but also a cool-ish sandalwood. It’s beautiful, but confusingly not super approachable. It make me think of a woman eating alone in the corner of a café with a book, her hair somehow both kept up away from her food but also on the verge of dipping into her tea. She’s got a dark ruby coloured lipstick on, but it’s a very muted and slightly smudged application. She’s got a large, expensive looking wool coat with her - but it looks like she may have stolen it from a male family member. Her tote has an adorable cartoon and a punny slogan on it - but she’s unironically reading Jean-Paul Sartre. Is she approachable? Who knows. She looks great and like she’s enjoying herself, and also somehow is not obtrusive or super attention-grabbing.

It’s not a particularly interesting scent per se - it does stay fairly linear throughout, which I think is a sentiment many noses have agreed on. Par for the course for the JM line. However, I think the original buzz around this house has faded quite a bit, so if you’re after a unique signature scent, this may be one to pick up on. Sillage, to me, is moderate (though I am quite sensitive in general).

Full bottle worthy? I think it’s a contender.

Inspiration - Dinner Plates

My key problems in my own ceramics practice are really 1) I don’t want to make anything that could be purchased in a mass produced setting 2) that being said, I also think a modicum of standardization is required, whereby a set of dinner plates for a full service needs to look like a set that goes together and 3) I never want to put out anything that isn’t the absolute best that I can do, and something that is notoriously and specifically ‘me’.

In short, I get in my own way a whole damn lot. I also know that I consume a lot of content, more than the average person, because of my freelancing work with small businesses and because I’m currently working towards a portfolio of my own for urban planning/interior design. Lots of things in motion - but the problem is, I need to be aware of what’s in my subconscious (paradoxical, I know). Because something that I think is an absolutely brilliant individual idea - to me - might actually be a rip off of someone else’s work that I’ve seen and catalogued into the recesses of my brain. And that’d be awful.

So I’m starting to put ideas down on internet paper - as a way of cataloguing but also describing my own artistic process. And, because I have a few spare throwing bats lying around I’m hoping to make some plates for my home. Here are some pieces from potters I follow, and aspects I either admire or would prefer slightly altered.

Bearing in mind! This is for dinner plates in serving sets. Not serving ware, not Asian side dish plates, not trinket platters, and not plates-but-also-bowls. Entrée plates and bread/dessert plates, only.

Thrown

I’ve admired Émilie Brichard (from malo atelier) and her work for as long as i can remember - I genuinely think at even the beginning of my love affair with ceramics. her work is quietly sculptural and gorgeous, and her glazes pool in a way that gives her forms the most incredible visual interest. she creates dinnerware for restaurants, and it’s quite obvious that her work is meant to be the canvas for incredible food creations.

In a similarly sculptural vein are Lee ki won and jung seung eum from doyedang ceramics, who not only do dinnerware but also incense holders, moon jars, teaware - the works. comparatively a little more playful and also steeped in their traditional history, much of their plate work also has a bit more of an incline in its form. not enough to be a bowl, or a not-a-bowl-not-a-plate.

agata of aku ceramics is a lady who makes me happy that i am currently suffering a little in the financials department (yes, someone who worked in finance suffering financially, i know). but it’s good in that had i been still making the money i did, most of it would go to her work. these are borderline bowls - but the inspiration here is the gentle urve on the inside of the rim, and the more softly flared lip.

on the opposite end of the spectrum, anna louise makes these plates that have a very sharp interior edge, that looks like it’s almost folded over. i imagine these to be plated with some sort of crudo or liquidy-sauced starter, where the contents of the dish wouldn’t move noticeably when being served to the table.

christian palino’s work can be found in several restaurants (which, can i say, goals?) and may have been one of the forerunners of these donut shaped bubbly looking plates. very much for amuse bouches, and while i love the look of these, i also don’t think they’re great for people who have limited space for collecting dinnerware.

Hand Built

These handbuilt fruit plates look like they’d be a joy to eat off of - especially plated with fruits, dips, or salads. this is what i think of when i think “perfectly imperfect”, where the handmade effect is so beautifully captured in each detail on Yasmin Falahat’s bowls and plates.

In a similarly handbuilt vein, imagine hosting a dinner party with these cat plates from hachinoco, who makes all sorts of ceramics in this cat motif! absolutely, impossibly obsessed. they’re perfectly stackable as well, it seems. and why stop at just cats? what about dogs? squirrels?

this, which is thrown with the flower indentations molded by hand after, would probably be quite difficult to make as a set. from keiichiro honda, who seems to do very traditionalist feeling one-offs, and has quite a few pieces of kintsugi displayed on his instagram page as well.

similarly - i can’t tell if the were previously handbuild or wheel thrown, but the detailing on the flange is defintely done after with a carving tool, and i’m absolutely fascinated with how tactile they look, specially with hilda carr’s hands in the shot.

Finishing

this, to me, is very reminiscent of the porcelain/blue detailing on antique chinese dinnerware, but instead s hyper-detailed and geometric. This is from ayla mullen, who also makes very stunning pitchers.

similar vein - from shingo arakawa, based out of japan, who makes individual plates. I think for a set, it may make sense to use a paper relief system to print out the designs, but somethng about a slightly mismatched set also really speaks to me, where there are small, hidden variations on each plate.

as you’ll see in the following artists, i absolutely adore sgraffito, which is a specific surface detailing technique. this? as a set? in your home? dead. i would keep all my dinners to four people maximum for forever, or howver many there were in this set of plates. heather elvidge makes the stuff of heirlooms.

cathy perletta’s work was what initially introduced sgraffito to me - and i’m absolutely enamoured with this type of detail. you could scroll her instagram page endlessly and just be agog at all the different themes she’s done, how intricate and beautifully made everything seems to be (the plates themselvs look like they are incredibly made, even exclusive of the decorating).

lastly… as gen z would say… it’s giving mom will kill you if you use her display plates. it’s giving artisanal masterpiece. it’s giving no way these are handmade. these are screaming to be displayed somewhere - the way monica geller from friends babied her set of fine china. Yantra Keramika has loads of process videos on her page, and genuinely, whatever she charges for them? probably not enough.

Hidden Home Design for Pets

Maybe it’s because I am an absolute child, but the fantasy of hidden trap doors and trompe l'oeil storage furniture has never left me. Instead, I’ve gained an unhealthy obsession with cats (and, by extension, most animals - I am frequently told to not pet stray raccoons or save up for a monitor lizard of my own) and with that, am fascinated by the way in which people integrate their pets’ needs into their homes.

For instance! For myself, I find an over-stove pot filler to be a want, not a need. But looking at this alcove for pet feeding? The pendulum swings further to a need. These seem to mostly be in farmhouse/coastal/contemporary kitchens, so I’m interested in seeing how it could be aesthetically integrated into something more industrial or japandi.

Similarly, pet doors! There are two OG YouTubers in Japan, Rachel and Jun, who detailed the process of building a cat-friendly home from the ground up, allocating for design elements specifically catered to their cats’ well-being. Unfortunately that type of service seems nonexistent here in North America, but there’s been an influx of beautifully integrated cat doors and alleys, some more obviously placed than others.

Specifically, I think this lends itself best to a drywall installation; you’d likely need to create some form of faux-wall protrusion for a more concrete/brick home. Some of these cleverly use the paneling details found more commonly on shaker-style doors, but those aren’t always the preferred design choice outside a few interior design themes.

As populations mature and economies around the world stabilize, birth rates tend to lower - and maybe this is more correlation and not causation, but many are preferring to become pet and plant parents in lieu of having human babies, and I think home decor and design choices will begin to more obviously reflect that.

Female Artists

I love looking for new art from independent artists - in this day and age, there are so, so many young talents out there, and thanks to social media they’ve become easier to find. It’s a fantastic way to decorate your home, and often consumers can find original artwork for a seemingly more affordable price point.

I also think it’s invaluable to constantly be looking and formulating opinions on art. There’s no true definition or set guidelines on what “good” art is, and anyone who tells you otherwise is not thinking for themselves. Art is meant to provoke, to stimulate, to resonate with the individual. Here are a few artists and their works that have been on my mind recently - and let me tell you, I have genuinely been unhealthily obsessed with these.

Meghann Stephenson

Website | Instagram | TikTok

Mara Guimaraes

Website | Instagram | TikTok

Julia Ockert

Website | Instagram | TikTok