Architecture in Silver: How Modern Design Shapes Our Jewelry
The MAANCY Design Philosophy
The Guggenheim's spiral and sterling silver share one quality—both speak through form. At MAANCY, this link between modern architecture and lasting jewelry shapes everything we create.
Our founder blends Chicago roots with Indian jewelry heritage to create pieces that honor both architectural inspiration and time-tested craft techniques. Her gemological training guides our selection of exceptional materials that showcase natural beauty. In our Chicago design studio and Los Angeles workshop, we transform silver into wearable sculpture defined by clean lines, purposeful design, and structural integrity.
Each piece in our Modern Icons collection bridges architectural inspiration and craft tradition, created to last for generations.
Form with Purpose: The Modern Influence
Modern architecture removes unnecessary details, keeping only what's essential—a principle we follow in our jewelry design. We focus on four key elements:
- Form: Clean, essential shapes
- Materials: Natural beauty of silver and stones
- Details: Only those that enhance the design
- Structure: Engineering that ensures comfort and durability
Our small team, including artisans with 30+ years of experience, crafts each piece with care in our Los Angeles workshop. This hands-on approach creates jewelry with a personal touch that mass production cannot match.
The Guggenheim Spiral in Wearable Form
Frank Lloyd Wright's iconic Guggenheim spiral creates a sense of continuous transformation. Our Interchangeable Fluted Collar Necklace captures this flowing movement while allowing for personal expression.
The curved silver frame provides striking presence yet remains comfortable through carefully shaped interior contours. Each stone attachment connects seamlessly without visible fasteners—reflecting Wright's belief in integrated design.
The necklace's flowing lines echo Wright's spiral while allowing for customization through changeable natural stones. This balance of structure and adaptability reflects both architectural influence and our vision of jewelry as personal expression.
Geisel Library Reimagined in Sterling
The Geisel Library at UC San Diego creates dramatic tension between weight and lightness through bold geometry. Our Interchangeable Fluted Earrings translate this balance into wearable form with polished silver framing hand-cut stones.
Each earring weighs exactly 7.8 grams—a measurement refined through wear testing to ensure all-day comfort. We select distinctive stones like jade, onyx, and lapis lazuli for their visual impact and structural strength.
Our stone selection draws from both modern gem knowledge and traditional wisdom from our founder's Indian heritage. Each stone is custom-cut to our specifications rather than mass-produced, honoring the natural variations that make each piece unique.
Floating Design: Inspired by The Broad Museum
The Broad Museum's honeycomb exterior appears to float despite its size. This same sense of weightlessness defines our Goutte Earrings, where substantial gemstone teardrops seem to hover from the ear.
Our master craftspeople achieve this effect through precise metalwork techniques. By working with silver's natural properties, they create settings that distribute weight evenly while maintaining visual delicacy. The 1.2mm silver wire provides strength while staying visually minimal—similar to The Broad's engineered lightness.
These earrings reflect our belief that comfort is essential to luxury—creating pieces with presence that can be worn from morning to night without discomfort.
The Impact of Empty Space
In both architecture and our jewelry, empty space creates visual rhythm and balance. Our Interchangeable Drop Hoop Earrings use negative space as a key design element rather than an afterthought.
The open silver hoop frames both movement and light around the changeable gemstone drop. This balance of structure and openness creates a design that shifts with your movement throughout the day. The space between elements reduces weight while adding visual interest, much like architectural voids that define buildings.
This approach reflects our design philosophy—include only what serves the piece's integrity and wearability, creating jewelry that feels balanced and timeless.
Texture as Design Language
Architectural surfaces tell stories through texture. Our silver pieces use varied finishing techniques that engage both sight and touch:
Brushed silver creates a subtle, matte surface similar to concrete's understated presence. Fine abrasives applied in a consistent direction create a uniform, non-reflective finish that captures architecture's solid quality.
High-polish finishes achieve a mirror-like quality that reflects light like architectural glass. Progressive polishing compounds create a surface that captures and transforms light as the piece moves.
Hammered textures add organic patterns, referencing hand-crafted architectural elements. Each mark is created individually rather than stamped, ensuring true artisan quality.
Our Mirror Dome Ring showcases this play of textures, with its bright polished center against a matte finish body. The boundary between these textures requires skilled handwork, defining the form like material transitions in modern buildings.
Natural Materials: Smooth Stones and Modern Design
Smooth, domed cabochon gemstones embody material honesty—a principle shared with Brutalist architecture that celebrates natural qualities. These stones display their character without hiding behind facets.
We select stones not just for color but for character and quality, working with suppliers who understand our standards for jade, onyx, lapis lazuli, moonstone, and chalcedony.
The Orb Collar Necklace arranges these hand-polished 16mm stones in rhythmic sequence along silk cord, individually knotted using traditional methods. The spacing creates balanced composition that references bold architectural repetition while maintaining comfortable proportions. At 42 grams, the weight is carefully distributed for comfort—applying engineering principles to wearable art.
Adaptable Design: Modular Jewelry Systems
Our jewelry includes modular elements—a concept drawn from architectural systems that value adaptation. This reflects our design approach inspired by both geometric modern architecture and organic natural forms.
We developed custom silicone components that fit seamlessly and securely within each piece, rejecting conventional fasteners like magnets or visible mechanisms. These components allow stones to move effortlessly in and out, secured by precision-machined silver caps and posts. This design also allows the wearer to use the stones alone as stud earrings, expanding each piece's versatility.
This system offers both practical benefits and sustainability. By buying one jewelry piece with multiple stone options, customers reduce consumption while expanding creative possibilities—a sustainable approach inspired by adaptive architecture.
Human Scale: Comfort Through Design
Architecture teaches valuable lessons about human scale and comfort—principles we apply to jewelry through careful attention to proportion and wearability. Every MAANCY piece undergoes extensive testing to ensure it balances visual impact with comfort.
Our Oblique Bangle demonstrates this balance. Its bold angular form creates presence, but its interior is carefully hollowed to reduce weight by 30% without compromising visual impact. This brings the piece to 58 grams—substantial enough to maintain its sculptural quality while remaining comfortable all day.
Our earrings are designed with specific weight limits based on wear testing. We keep earrings under 8 grams to prevent discomfort while preserving design integrity. This attention to physical experience defines our approach to luxury—beauty should never sacrifice comfort.
The Silver Palette: Natural Colors in Modern Design
Modern architecture often uses a restrained color palette that highlights form and material—a principle we apply through our focus on sterling silver. The metal's natural qualities provide a range of tones through different finishing techniques.
Silver's reflective quality creates a dynamic relationship with light, changing character throughout the day like a modern building façade. Over time, sterling silver develops a natural patina that adds depth. This natural evolution honors the material's inherent qualities rather than fighting against them.
When we add color through gemstones, we select natural materials with subtle depth rather than synthetic brightness. Jade, lapis lazuli, and chalcedony provide rich, natural color that complements the silver framework—creating material harmony inspired by architectural composition.
Enduring Design: Sustainable Luxury
MAANCY jewelry transforms architectural principles into personal adornment with quiet elegance. We create pieces that remain relevant long after trends fade, meant to be treasured for years rather than seasons. Our understanding of luxury centers on craftsmanship, material quality, and timeless design.
This approach aligns with conscious values: recycled sterling silver, responsibly sourced stones, modular designs that reduce consumption, fair compensation for skilled local artisans, and craftsmanship built for generations.
The blend of architectural inspiration and jewelry craft creates pieces with both intellectual depth and everyday wearability—objects that connect to design history while evolving with their wearers.
Explore Our Collection
Our Modern Icons collection and Gemstones series invite you to experience architectural inspiration through jewelry designed for versatility and longevity. Each piece reflects our commitment to thoughtful design, quality materials, and skilled craftsmanship.