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.):