The jewelry designer Maor Cohen and the artist Olivia Steele have come together to create a one-of-a-kind capsule collection, available exclusively at The Webster Miami. All proceeds from the sale of the pieces—packaged in the store’s signature flamingo pink— go to the YoungArts Foundation.
Whitewaller spoke with Cohen about the cosmic inspiration behind his MAOR jewelry line and “Saturn” collection.
Photo by Little Wolf Collective, courtesy of Maor Cohen.
WHITEWALLER: With MAOR, you wanted to create clean, luxurious, and genderless jewelry. Why was it important for you that the pieces you create be defined by the wearer?
MAOR COHEN: The main thing I had in mind was how I could create something that everyone can wear—an element or a design that the wearer will be complemented by. In other words, designing elegant and very clean pieces with a tiny twist of an edge that makes the wearer feel unique.
Little Wolf Collective, Courtesy of MAOR
Jewelry is a very personal thing, versus other things in our closet. The wearer needs to have a strong connection with the jewel in terms of energy, look, quality, and feeling in order to wear it. I believe this is the most important element in the jewelry world, an investment that is for life versus a seasonal item within the wardrobe.
WW: How is your jewelry cosmically inspired?
Little Wolf Collective, Courtesy of MAOR
MC: When I designed the debut collection for MAOR, “Saturn,” I was out in nature spending the night under the sky, diving into the universe. I was fascinated by the movement and the size of the night sky. So I created the “Saturn” collection, which is inspired by the universe and its movement.
WW: How do these pieces relate to the jewelry you made while growing up on the beach?
Little Wolf Collective, Courtesy of MAOR
MC: The jewelry I created in the first steps of my career on the beach was the beginning of my creative journey, inspired by the energy of the ocean and my connection with the water. Every design, piece, and process of inspiration that created my path brought me to where I am today. It’s the first time in my career that I am not looking at the surface for inspiration, which means in past journeys my inspiration was from texture, nature, cultures, people, and from that I engineered the elements with a specific movement. For the first time in my career, my inspiration behind MAOR —“Saturn” collection—is from what is above us. It’s been fascinating for me, diving into the universe and traveling between planets, wondering who we are there. And with that question, that is how MAOR was born.
WW: How would you describe your creative process? Does it start from a sketch? From material?
Little Wolf Collective, Courtesy of MAOR
MC: My design process varies from one collection to another. It all starts with a vision that I have in my mind. I can envision the pieces moving and constructed in certain ways. I come back to the studio with a rough sketch that then goes to a computer sketch to refine. The next step is the casting, then model making, which goes to production. Going from vision to mission.
WW: How did you arrive at the three- link form of many of your bracelets and rings?
Little Wolf Collective, Courtesy of MAOR
MC: I wanted to look at the pieces not only as jewelry but as art forms that can be displayed and played with in so many different ways in order to create an art installation. In the next collections that are designed already for the coming seasons, the forms of the three links will change to variations of different shapes of art form.
WW: What does jewelry symbolize for you?
Little Wolf Collective, Courtesy of MAOR
MC: Jewelry for me is a way to communicate my vision, my inspiration, my soul, my world, by creating unique elements that touches people’s hearts and mind. It is a way to express individuality in the finest way.
