Spell Started With Five Stones and a Curve

Spell is where our dangle rings started. Five bezel-set stones hanging from a curved band, every one a different cut.

Before it was a ring, it was a pencil sketch with notes scribbled in the margins. Those notes are a better explanation of Spell than anything we could write now, so here they are.

The curve came first

Spell's band isn't a plain circle with charms clipped on. In the sketch, the top of the band dips, and the note beside it says it plainly: "curved down so it sits flat."

It's a small decision that changes the whole ring. A band that sits flat feels like it belongs on your hand rather than perched on top of it. It also gives the five stones a clean line to hang from, so they read as one design instead of five separate charms.

Original pencil sketch of the Spell ring with the designer's notes — From the original Spell sketch

You don't see the decisions. You just see a ring that looks right on your hand.

Five cuts, on purpose

A trillion, a round, a marquise, a princess and a pear. In the sketch they get their own row, each drawn separately under the label "bezel stones," like a lineup before casting.

Five identical stones would have made a pattern. Five different cuts make a ring you keep looking at, because every shape throws the light back a little differently. The bezel matters too: a thin rim of metal wraps each stone, which turns every crystal into a finished little charm.

There's also a stone that didn't make it. Off to one side sits an oval with a question mark next to it: "oval?" The final five don't include it. Knowing what to leave out is part of the design.

"A little lower"

Next to the marquise there's an arrow and two words: "a little lower."

That's the kind of adjustment nobody notices once it's right, and everybody would notice if it weren't. The spacing between charms, how far each one drops, the order the shapes come in: Spell's appeal lives in those millimeters. You don't see the decisions. You just see a ring that looks right on your hand.

★★★★★

“The ring is just as pictured. It's beautifully made and reasonably priced.”

Emma B., verified buyer · Spell Ring

What came after

Spell set the pattern for a whole family of dangle rings. Wink doubled the band and gave each hoop its own drop. Confetti hangs pear drops from a slim band. Alice pares the idea down to a single dangling pear.

Each one started the same way Spell did: on paper, with our team in Los Angeles arguing over millimeters.

Spell itself comes in Heavy Gold+ gold, with 2.5 microns of real 18K gold, and in .925 sterling silver, in sizes 4 through 11. The stones are still set by hand, one at a time.

Five stones, one curve, a margin full of notes. Not bad for a first draft.

Meet Spell.