When Marla Aaron founded her namesake jewelry brand in 2012, the first piece she offered was a lock made in silver with a screw closure, much like a climbing carabiner.
That kind of hardware-inspired style has carried over to every piece in her line, including rings that hinge open and closed, pendant necklaces that are pulleys set with precious gems and earrings with slots for interchangeable charms. “I like resourceful things, egalitarian things,” Ms. Aaron, a New York designer, said during a recent interview. “I know those are not words that are used in fine jewelry a lot, but those are my words.”
So her brand’s first jewelry collaboration — with Nymphenburg, the 278-year-old German maker of fine porcelain — might not seem like an obvious partnership. But she met the brand’s former chief executive several years ago and found its products, such as handmade tableware, figurative pieces, tiles and lighting, to be what she described as “completely unforgettable.”
Two years ago, during an impromptu visit to the Baroque palace complex in Munich that serves as Nymphenburg’s headquarters, she pitched the idea of integrating the company’s porcelain into her designs. “By turning these pieces into jewelry, more people could experience them,” she said recently.
The result was a capsule collection scheduled for release in October: her signature Lock, a multipurpose design that can be used, for example, as a pendant; a bracelet with a rolling cylinder closure; a disc that can be worn as an earring or pendant; and what she calls a depository, a tiny vase-like stand that can be used to hold rings, spare change or a floral sprig. (Six inches tall with a three-inch base, the depository’s design is based on a desktop accessory Ms. Aaron inherited from her maternal grandfather.)
Ingrid Harding, the head of product development for Nymphenburg, said Ms. Aaron’s proposal had passed an essential litmus test for any of its collaborations, even those with such well-known artists as Damien Hirst or Kiki Smith. “There always has to be something very special about the design,” she said, “about the idea that celebrates the handwork.”
Work began with the simplest design — the round charm — and culminated with the most complex, the Lock, which has a six-side closure and rounded contours. The creation of the porcelain elements had to be particularly precise, Ms. Harding said, to ensure they would fit into their gold settings once they reached Ms. Aaron’s workshop.
To decorate the porcelain, Ms. Aaron chose the house’s Cumberland pattern, a floral dinnerware design that Ms. Harding described as Nymphenburg’s “most exclusive, most fabulous” motif.
The Rococo design, which dates to 1765, features multicolored flowers, butterflies and other insects framed in an intricate 18-karat gold trim. Generally, only artisans with at least a decade of experience are allowed to paint the pattern, and a single dinner plate costs more than $15,000.
The pieces made with Ms. Aaron, which are painted by hand and therefore vary from piece to piece, might be considered a comparative bargain. Prices are to begin at $800 for an unpainted porcelain depository, rising to $16,000 for the oversize fully decorated Lock.
The collection is to be sold at Bergdorf Goodman, Liberty in London, and Marla Aaron’s atelier in New York City, as well as through her website.
But even before the items go on sale, Ms. Aaron has been brainstorming ideas for future projects with Nymphenburg that could be more accessible. “It’s about a celebration of craft,” she said. “If this work is utterly rarefied, it will disappear.”
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