Look Book

Fall/Holiday 2026 | 41 Maxwell had always returned from her travels with jewelry; not the kind you'd find in a duty-free shop, but pieces for which she "had shaken the hand of the person who made it." Unable to find anything like it in the States, she took jewelry-making classes in Franklin, Tennessee, and then apprenticed with a local jeweler in Cedar Rapids. "I never said, 'I'm going to start a jewelry line,'" she recalls. "at wasn't ever on my radar." Running into Monica Stephenson—on her first trip to Las Vegas, while she was still apprenticing—changed that. Stephenson, a co-founder of ANZA Gems, told her about bringing gemstones out of East Africa and supporting artisanal miners, and it clicked. "at's when I decided I can do this," says Maxwell. "e jewelry industry isn't all fluff … it can be significant and meaningful. And I can go back to those communities that I had been to in East Africa and support in a different way than medicine." What I hadn't appreciated was that Maxwell—who opened her Cedar Rapids studio in 2017 and released her first collection the following year—is a bench jeweler, which is sadly becoming something of a rarity. To this day, she wears the first ring she ever made, start to finish at the bench: a bezel-set aquamarine cabochon that is, in her words, "chipped from me setting it"; with versions of it living on in the collection as e OG Ring. at crasmanship is perhaps most evident in her signature pavé hearts. Nothing is preset or pre-drilled; stones in three sizes are set by hand, 20 to 30 percent of them reverse-set; and the crasman making a heart determines its pattern and stone count that day. "Your average bench jeweler can't set them reverse-set, and then mix the two styles," Maxwell explains. e result is a jewel with multiple elevations that reveals something different from every angle. (Personally, I'm a huge fan of reverse-set stones, because not only do they strike me as a bit punk rock, but I love the word culet.) "Keep in mind, I am not a graduate gemologist, so I'm picking the gemstones that I think are pretty," Maxwell told me. "I'm not going to go with a blue zircon, but you show me a mocha one, and I'm going to go with that." Which brings us back to "Bauble," launched this year, featuring some of the finest gemstones she's used to date. Gaze upon the very special center stones of the four one-of-a-kind rings—a luxe blush-mocha zircon, a pale violet- periwinkle tanzanite, a minty seafoam-green tourmaline, and a vivid fuchsia Malaya garnet, ranging from 3.83 to 8.74 carats—to pick up what she's throwing down. Marquis Multi Set Pavé Earrings featuring a pavé of reverse- and classic-set, round brilliant-cut Grey Diamonds (approx. 3.15ctw), set in satin-finished 18K Gold with antique Black Rhodium. OOAK Rectangular Starburst Pendant (from the "Kuwa" collection) featuring a round cabochon-cut lavender Sapphire (10.99ct | untreated) and round brilliant-cut Diamonds (0.06ctw | G/H, VS), set in a pendant of satin- finished 18K Gold, suspended from an oval link chain of satin-finished 18K Gold. OOAK 'Amani' Pavé Pendant with Blue Chalcedony Scarab (from the "Amani" collection) featuring a Blue Chalcedony scarab (6.32ct) within a pavé of round brilliant-cut Diamonds (1.58ctw | G/H, VS1), with an opening bail, set in satin-finished 18K Gold. [Top to bottom] Large Sapphire Inline Gemstone Necklace featuring 5 emerald-cut Sapphires in an array of colors (6.04ctw | untreated); Spinel Pod & Gemstone Necklace featuring 4 oval-cut Spinels in an array of colors (4.71ctw | untreated); and Sapphire Inline Gemstone Necklace featuring 7 oval-cut Sapphires in an array of colors (5.32ctw | untreated); all set in satin-finished 18K Gold. OOAK Rhodolite and Mahenge Garnet Two- Stone Ring featuring a round cabochon- cut Rhodolite Garnet (5.15ct | untreated) alongside a radiant-cut Mahenge Garnet (2.41ct | untreated), set in satin- finished 18K Gold.

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