The circle is more than a shape for Los Angeles jewelry alchemist Maor Cohen—it’s a philosophy of creativity, connection, and renewal. From his early days stringing beads in Israel to designing for collectors around the world, Maor has transformed fine metals and gemstones into deeply personal expressions of energy and meaning. In this soulful conversation, he shares how intention guides every piece he makes, why true artistry begins with self-alignment, and how darkness often sparks light in his creative process. Through his reflections on craft, healing, and individuality, Maor reminds us that creation itself is a circle—one that always leads us back to who we truly are.
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Los Angeles Jewelry Alchemist: How The Circle And Creative Genius Go Hand In Hand With Maor Cohen
The Alchemist’s Vision: Crafting Beauty With Intentionality
I’m going to start off with a statement I really believe, Maor. You may be one of the most talented sculptors of metal and gems that I’ve ever seen. What you do is so beautiful. It’s what you’ve done for me, which I’ve got a close-up of. I’m going to copy him to the show. You created this for me, and I didn’t even tell you, but I was going through cancer when you created this for me, and you helped heal me. Look at this stuff, you have given me beauty and things to love and enjoy, even this clasp. Do you know, when I’m putting this on, I’ll just take a minute and look at this clasp.
You take a minute to put it on, though.
Everything you do just oozes with beauty, and it makes life better. When I came in to talk to you, and bespoke stuff is, I’m not going to sit here and promote to everybody that you should call them to make you something custom, because maybe that’s something you want to pursue. What impressed me so much was that when we sat down, you cared, you listened.
You asked me questions that were so deep and real about why the circle. What does the circle mean to you? That’s why I’m so honored to have you here now, because that’s the name of the show. You gave me this. I wear it. It’s the one thing I’ll never take off. It’s like my Iron Man energy pack right here. It just hangs on my chest. Even if it’s under the shirt, it’s with me, and it represents all of this.
Of course, when I sit and create something from my own. By the way, thank you very much for the love over the years. You have been one of my most recognizable collectors. You do have elements I created fifteen years ago. That is still in your archive and my archive as well. It’s nice when you come and mix it up with some newness. Every couple of months, you come to say hi and you see what’s new.
How can I make it more colorful? How can I twist what I already have? Working with you for the first time, making your own element that’s really meaningful to you. It’s not about just taking metals and stones and sculpting them in a way that they will represent what you think you want. It’s like a lot of people come to me and say, “Maor, I really want to have this element.” They don’t always know why they want that element. Sometimes I’m going deeper and deeper. Sometimes I’m finding they don’t even know.
See, I love that. It’s like they know it means something, but you formulate the meaning.
Yeah, they probably don’t even know they need it. They don’t need it. It’s not something that they actually need. What brought them in is the idea of this element they wanted to have. Diving deeper into the intentions of why you’re finding this meaning behind what they want, but it’s not necessarily what they need to have. We need to find that elements within their needs to create the perfect element for them to have.
That will carry the energy that it’s been directed for and will help them achieve the reminder that they need every day from that piece when they wear it. For me, looking at you, you have an amazing artwork on your hands and your body, amazing tattoos. It’s really nice work. I don’t have many tattoos. I believe each one of them represents a specific period of your life and elements that really touch you. It’s reminders of times in your life and experiences of your life.
Perfectly said.
These are my tattoos. These are my reminders. Each element that I created here that I have on me is basically elements that I created in different periods of my career or my life, representing different elements. This one is one of the most powerful ones. It’s the matchstick.
I love where it lands on the finger, by the way. See, that’s even like so you. What you just described is exactly what I felt. I didn’t know Juan, who’s great by the way, he’s a great liaison of your passion. I didn’t know you, but I walked into this little store on Third Street in Los Angeles, and it was calling me like every piece I still have, the tassel, the bronzed.
Bronze skulls.
Each little leak in this thing is like a thousand skulls make it. Everything like said to me, “I need to wear this.” It’s like, what’s cool about you is this was bespoke and we did it. You literally did it specifically, but even the stuff you do that goes right into the case, somehow, you know it’s going to speak to people.
The Artist’s Intent: Crafting With Purpose
In my process of creation, when I sit at my table and like really touching the materials and trying to think what I’m going to do with that now, what I haven’t done with that yet, I put my intentions in a way that what is that item that I’m creating right now will serve me first, where it’s going to land, how it’s going to impact the rest of what I have on.
How will it impact me? How do I want to feel when I wear it? That process has always been about me. What I create today, what I want to wear tomorrow, this is my very well spoken sentence. Of course, sometimes I’m looking at some of my collectors, some of the people that I admire to wear my stuff, some specific aesthetic of a look that combines the intentions, the meanings, and the aesthetic of the item.
Attention means aesthetic. A lot of stuff you see out there it’s just the aesthetic. That’s why it feels, even though it’s metal, it’s missing soul sometimes. When you see things, I could see it across the room, I go, “That doesn’t look like it was thoughtful.”
A lot of what you see out there is just the aesthetic — and that’s why, even though it’s metal, it feels like it’s missing a soul. Share on XSometimes things are made like you write as an aesthetic. The intention of the element was aesthetic. It’s not the way I operate. It’s not the way I create. Sometimes it takes me a couple of hours to lock down a design. Sometimes it takes me a couple of months. Sometimes it takes me a year to just complete a piece. I’m starting it. I’m having it on the table, but I stop touching it, but I always see it. I’m always coming back to it. It’s not there yet. It doesn’t touch me yet. Let me see where it’s going to go.
Let’s see if you won’t do it until it does.
Yeah, until one day I’m just sitting at the table and I’m like picking it up. I was like, “This here for a long time, I thought about this and this, but let’s try to play with that.” It comes to fruition. The way I work with people is I’m really working with myself before I meet them to be as clear-minded as I can, with no destruction, and to really focus and understand who they are, what they are about, what their missions are, what their goals are, and where they are in life. First of all, thank you very much for sharing with me that you were not at your best at that time. Funny enough, I have a lot of people that through my career that came not been at their best.
The Healing Power Of Gems: A Personal Connection
It’s almost a healing element when it really speaks to you.
Yes. When we work with fine metals and fine gemstones, crystal healing elements, when you combine them together to be on somebody’s body, it’s a gift. It’s a gift for me.
When we combine fine metals, gemstones, and crystal healing elements to be worn on someone's body, it's a gift—a gift from me. Share on XDo you know why I just got the shivers? It’s because I don’t know if you remember this, but you said to me, “The circle’s not enough. It needs to have a couple of gems inside, which almost nobody will ever see.” It’s almost like you read this as a healing gem attribute that I needed. Once you said it, I was like, “I love that.” I also love the idea that, like when the sun hits them, they just change color. I look down to see if the sun’s hitting it, but it’s like my little secret because it’s not obvious.
It’s about to show somebody. It’s obviously it’s part of an aesthetic detail, but on the afterthought. The main thought is how can we put elements to different gemstones to healing properties on the same piece close to your heart that can work together to create whatever needs to be created? In this case was healing. I’m just working right now on a special piece for the past almost two months on this beautiful soul that has been through an interesting journey, light and dark, at the same time. His partner, his love, reached out to me. They’re based in Berlin.
I love that. Around the world, people are reaching out.
She came to LA for a couple of weeks, and we met a few times, and we narrowed down those elements that he needs to have on. I think this week is going to be ready. I think it’s the last stages of making it happen. For me, it’s really working with the bespoke category that has a few different elements, a few different needs.
Some people are like really cool, and they want to have something really cool on them. They just come to have that specific link chain that they want to make with mixed metals or make it longer, shorter, bigger, or smaller. This is something that’s easy to do, but it’s part of my process of being a creative and a designer. Also, understanding what people are looking for that they cannot find. I’ll always try and be myself as a solution for them.
Embracing The Challenge: The Joy Of Bespoke Design
Do you love the challenge of that, by the way?
I love it.
I know it’s probably a little bit more of a pain too, but do you enjoy it or not?
Sometimes it can be painful because it’s not about the money, it’s about making people happy. Sometimes it’s just a beautiful lighting process that’s really like bringing beautiful, strong, deep thinking, analyzing, breathing it in process that you’re trying to get into the need of the small detail that is hidden that will make a difference. For me, it’s the fuel of creation. It’s basically fueling me all day long, working with somebody very meaningful like you. I needed that, not because it looks cool because they have hidden meanings behind it. Without knowing the details, I directed my work to create the healing elements for that segment.
Isn’t it wild? Somehow, I was called to ask Juan, like, “Do you think there’s any chance he would do that?” Like I was called, I don’t know what made me think of it. With everything that was going on, I was just like, “I think this is something that needs to happen.” It was so wild.
He knows Juan has worked with me for the past 12 years, almost 13 years. He knows that working with me for that long that this is what I do. This is what I love doing. This is what I like can take me away from all the chaotic days I have at the studio with my team and the stress because I’m like going down and relaxed and like really like trying to connect on a deeper level to really understand the purpose to understand why. There’s always everything we do in life starts with why.
At least it should be. Do you know what I love that you said? Much of the circle, for me, the show, the stoic philosophy of the circle, which is also a tattoo, is about bringing your best self first. I love how honest and transparent you are. You said it more than once, like for me, first I have to. A lot of people don’t ever stop to do that. It might seem selfless, but it’s actually wrong because if you don’t start with being good with yourself and showing up as your best self. What’s the meaning of that to you? It sounds like that matters to you a lot.
The Circle’s Philosophy: Self-Care As The Foundation Of Creativity
It’s important. I believe that everybody with a little bit of consciousness can actually feel that way. For me, it’s always been how do I receive from the process of working on myself before I’m thinking of others, and how your specific need coming to my studio for your own reasons really impacted my being by doing it within your process. It’s weird the way I say it. It’s really helped me this week to reconnect with myself again.
You come to the office, you come to the studio. Just the regular things, there’s the regular schedule, there’s deadlines, there’s fashion week, there are sales reports, there is March merchandising, there are always things that you don’t feel like doing that take you. When you walked in, I was just giving us our experiences. As an example, you came in, it’s like you forced me naturally to really silence all the noise and reconnect with myself again.
You did it well, you were very present.
I remember that like it was at 9:00 AM this morning, so I really remember the whole process, and that gave me fuel and ignited my intentional creation again for that week. You come with a list of things to do every day to the office, but sometimes you’ve been forced to deal with something or do something that you’re very good at, and you sometimes forget.
You really forget how life turns, takes you right and left, and you forget your true purpose. Those moments are for me, the reminders that go deeper with myself. Research the stones. Understanding how these two properties can work together with the metals we’re putting on. I haven’t had that lately. I haven’t had in the last couple of months a purpose of.
Navigating Chaos: Maintaining Creative Balance
The circle of control. Talk to me a little bit for the audience about how you manage the circle of control, even though you might not find it that way. Your examples a minute ago, you’re constantly being pulled outside the things you cannot control. All of us with news and stuff, but also with as you said, all these business issues that, yes, you need to affect them, but your schedule is your creativity. How do you manage that balance?
Looking back, it’s always been the calling that the materials called like, “I’m here. You didn’t touch me for a while.”
You get pulled back in the circle. Do you sit just in front of the materials for inspiration?
You mean in my studio, it’s all in front of me. If I sit at the back table where I bench, it’s all around me. It’s my wall on my left.
It’s a cocoon, by the way. The feeling of that is like you walk in there and you’re just like, “I’m safe. I’m comfortable.”
It’s actually my safe for you. You put it really on point. It’s my safe place. It’s my bunker. It’s my light and my dark sometimes.
There’s an energy transition between the studio when that door opens. There is a clear energy transition. It’s wild.
There are a few periods of my year that I’m calling to design. Sometimes the company needs new styles, and we need to show newness. I’m doing this because of that. If I go there, if that’s the need, that time I go back to my archive and I work with my team and understand, “What elements people gravitate to? What did you do really well? How can we take this old style that really works well for us and make it new? How can we bring new, fresh blood into the system?” The true creation comes when I’m in a dark place, when I’m going dark, when I’m going into a place that I’m sucked too much into the business management.
Who is that, though? The negative thing is actually the thing that sparks the positive.
Yes, that’s always the circle. It’s always that.
That needs to be reiterated right now because see, most people avoid it at all costs the dark like it’s the playing. We don’t have it without light without dark. I always talk about food. The only reason medium rare tastes so good is because the edges are burnt and the inside is still contrast. I love that you said that, like so, you’re not afraid of the dark. You what that means? Light is coming.
Finding Your Flow: Overcoming Creative Blocks
When I get to that block, I call it blocked space, which is when I’m in a place where I have no creativity. I’m sucked into too many elements, family travel, life.
“I don’t have any more juice in me.”
That’s something that I never think of or never because it’s when you force yourself to create something, it’s never going to come. When I get to this stage, that I am in this block mood, it can be for like a couple months, 2, 3, 4 months. There’s no need for me to create right now. I just finished a collection of like 200 new styles.
When you force yourself to create something, it's never going to come. Share on XThere’s no reason for me to create. Every year, we create about 200 new items. The business doesn’t have a need for me to create. I’m like moving on to different elements the business needs. When I’m sucked too much into that element that I’m not comfortable with, my energy goes lower and lower over time. The battery is finished.
When I get to that stage, I just sit on the other side of the table, and I start touching the materials, and then the ideas come together. I’m just changing my physical view where I am sitting. Last time you said in my studio office, and when I sit on the other side of the table, I get to see the materials and touch them. When I get there, it can be two things. It can be amazing in and out short injection of amazing, strong, enlightened energy, or it can be like 4 or 5 months of a deep hole of starting with something that led to another thing and led to another thing.
I’m sucked too much into the design world, and I have 200 styles that are sitting on the table that the company doesn’t need. It always has that circle of dark place that the materials attract me into the creation mode. Sometimes, like I said, it can be like two or three days. By saying where I am right now with that, I haven’t touched my table. Since I think June or July, I haven’t touched my table. No need for me to do any new designs.
I like to even say no need because you’re letting it just play out. It isn’t funny, even as a chef, sometimes the thing you do in two seconds is delicious, and the thing you planned for a week to make the fanciest dinner you’ve ever made isn’t as good. Is it like that with the design?
It’s the same thing. It comes in circles. It comes in waves. It’s always turning around. As humans, now it’s like midday, maybe 1:00 PM in 12 hours is going to be completely dark. It’s always in that circle of movement.
I love your highlighting of that, because so much of my focus is in or out. You’re right. The other layer of the circle is that it is just embracing that everything is circular, which is why I love that saying, “This too shall pass.” No matter how good it is right now, or how bad, this too shall pass.
“I should enjoy it as much as I can. I know it’s a darker time coming and opposite.” This is what I think the entire universe.
Early Inspirations: How A 14-Year-Old Became A Jewelry Designer
There’s a point you want to finish. Finish that first, but 14 years old, what called you to this, I mean, that’s a young age to like start designing jewelry.
What attracted me to start touching those materials and that creative outlet is a necklace that I saw on one of my friends who just came back from Goa, India. I like the colors, and I like the stones on it, and I like what it represented to him. I was like, “This is really cool. I want one, too. I really like that.” I went to my mom’s jewelry drawer, and I started looking at things and touching things, and my mom wasn’t really wearing much jewelry. She had 2 or 3 pieces on her that were always on her, and all the rest was there just to be there. I stole one of the necklaces of my mom and I deconstructed it.
What drives somebody at fourteen to do that?
I don’t know. When I always tell that story, I see myself in that dressing room as a child looking around and touching things and hiding things, and trying to find things that if I take them, she would notice. If she notices, she will freak out. My mom is Moroccan. She’s not a peaceful person. I took the necklace. I cut it apart, but I did not really know what I was going to do with that. It was maybe, I don’t know, a couple of hundred small beads on it.
I did not have the wires to do that. I went and took a fishing wire from my fishing box, and I put it all together, and I said, “This is really cool. I like that.” I wore it, and I got my friends, “How did you get one?” I was like, “I made it.” I have parts of it because it dripped, and it’s been recreated maybe a couple of hundred times over the years.
Has that been a collection piece, though? Was your inspiration from that to do a new piece?
There’s not a lot of these, but the stone elements that I have on are inspired by that. I took that necklace, I wore it for a few days, and then I didn’t like it anymore. I changed it again, and I changed it again, and then I took a different wire and I started making some different knotting systems to try to combine them with knotting systems. With that, I created different elements. With those specific beads from that necklace, I made maybe 150 to 200 different items.
Were your parents supportive at that point?
I was just playing. Within that process, going to high school from 10th grade to 12th grade, I used to come to school.
This was in Israel?
In Israel. Back when I lived in Israel. There were two trays of beads and one sack of wires that I walked to school in the morning, and I made jewelry for the entire school.
You established yourself.
Every day, taking orders, the first break, delivering the second break, making the second break, and delivering at the end of the day. Every day I made a couple of thousand cheques, almost every day. It became a thing. In Israel, my best friends and people from childhood called me Maor Mala.
Which means?
Mala beads. I used to make mala beads.
Do you still have them?
Yes. A lot of them still have it. My mom has some.
We need that in the first section of the Maor Museum.
Sometimes people come to me with pieces that I made at a very young age, like early age of my career, and they come to repair a piece that I made like eighteen years ago.
I get that, though, because it becomes part of your being, and you don’t want to be without it.
I’m like sometimes saying, “How did you even get it? How do you still have it? You came to fix one that hasn’t been ripped.” I’m like, “Would you mind if I give you this much credit for a new collection, and I’ll keep this?”
That should be a campaign.
Sometimes they’re like, “No way. This is my investment.” I have a friend whom I met a couple of weeks ago at a holiday dinner. He was talking with our friends about how he was actually my first or second friend here in LA. He was the first client who ever bought anything from me. He bought a lot.
I love that guy.
We started by sharing youngerhood experiences and laughing about different things. I was like, “Would you mind selling it to me?” It’s like, “No way. This is my investment-minded way of thinking back then. I keep it in a place that one day I can cash out on it.” I was like, “I’ll buy it from you.”
That’s hilarious. There you go. That’s another one of your examples. It means something different to everybody. For him, it’s not about being on him. He wants them.
He was wearing it then. He did not know that when we met then, like almost twenty years ago, this is where I wanted to take it. In the last few years, he’s been like, “I’m going to keep this. One day it will be worth something.” I have a beautiful, wide archive of everything that I created, but those early pieces most of them were one of a kind. They did not have production capabilities. It was just like, “That’s what’s on the table. Let’s play with that and make something. This is it. I cannot do any more.”
This is part of the circle. It’s always coming back to the circle. I wanted to say something earlier in regards to the creative process. When I design, we are human. Most of us are impacted by our surroundings, our circle of people that we’re circle of love with. I call it the circle of love. We’re very impacted by our circle of love, which is friends, chosen family, and people who impact our being. In our circle, there are all sorts of different energies, frequencies, and movement. If it’s illness, if it’s depression, if it’s economic issues, financial issues, or sometimes it’s health.
All around us, we have those people whom we are trying to show up. We’re doing everything to show up in their best and in their worst. That’s impacting our being. You go to sleep at night thinking about your best friend whose father passed away, and you’re just trying to really connect with him on that painful process and healing process at the same time that he’s going through for the past couple of weeks, but it’s impacting you. It’s impacting your day. It’s impacting your being, thinking about it. It is giving you a lot of different thoughts about happiness. What actually matters in life? What do we want from life?
It’s going to find out everyone’s experience gives us a reminder to keep us on track.
Therapy In Materials: Channeling Emotions Into Art
Sometimes you don’t have to experience those things yourself. Sometimes our surroundings bring us these reminders, and that circle, which is the circle of love. We call it a circle of our life. They have so much impact and responsibility on our being, for good or bad. For me, creation is something I really want to dive into for a few minutes. Creation for me, touching the materials, is a therapy. The materials are my psychologist.
Touching the materials is therapy. The materials are my psychologist. Share on XI freaking love that. That is beautiful.
When I touch the elements, I imagine I go on a journey with that element. It’s basically a channeling situation that I have from above going through me to my hands and whatever I’m making. There are times when I don’t even think about what I do. I think about my mom, I think about my best friend, I think about friends that I lost, friends that I gained, places I want to be, and situations I’ve been in that impacted me.
I have like this beautiful storm of emotions going through, and my hands just working by themselves, and it’s just that circle of love is fueling it, making it easy. I was like, “That’s cool. I can make it in this color, I’ll make it this way.” I’m going through that very deep meditation while I create you’re channeling. It’s hard to explain.
It’s not explainable that you are actually able to channel. I heard somebody say this on the show, like the greatest creators realize that they are just channeling something in the universe. They don’t take responsibility for what they did. They just channeled it.
Sometimes the stuff I create is amazing. Sometimes they’re not. They were the purpose of my receiving what I was supposed to receive.
Do they become something later?
Sometimes they’re just going to the drawer of stuff that is unknown. Sometimes I’m like, “Did I just do it? I’m cutting it off.” It all depends on what I’m going through at the same time. Now, we realize that “I don’t need to create any more jewelry. If I do create something, I need to create something completely different.” Talking about like the last couple of weeks, I was thinking about how we need to create something new, but we don’t really need to do new jewelry.
If I create something needs to be something easy and cool that we don’t have anymore. It was back of my mind. While we were sitting with my team viewing the campaign images, I had this little piece of wire that I touched and played with. I don’t even notice it’s there. I’m just like a therapist. It’s almost like you’re playing. I’m just playing like this and talking to you. “This is really cool.” I’m like touching it. I was like, “I haven’t done anything with this wire for so long.”
I took a couple of pieces that I had on my table, and I put them in, and I was like, “This is great bone for what that element can be.” It’s something that my collections for a while, you probably have never seen. Maybe you’ve seen a little bit many years ago. It took me for a spin. It took me to an interesting spin of, “Let’s see what else is out there with this work. Who is doing what? What brands are focusing on what’s their signature with these elements? Who wears it? If I do it, what will be?” Here it is. It’s the first one I did, all the colors are already. Just to get an idea. We did this. It’s very simple. I don’t think you ever saw anything like this in my collection.
No.
Now it’s a bone, now it’s the skeleton of it, but it’s going to be like really “Interesting element here, and we’re going to put some golden diamond here.” Sometimes people just want as simple, not you and me. There’s something to be said for that, too.
Sometimes the elegant, almost disappearing, has value. Only you could even take a piece of material like that, and even the way you nodded this is unbelievable.
You’re going to have some interesting details, like a diamond on the top. We’re going to have a little tag here. I’m going to do an interesting concept. I cannot talk about it right now. Right here, that will be very playful for you can build your own situation here. This is something that I never had in the brand.
It’s hilarious that with all this stack, this is exciting you.
That’s what’s hilarious. It’s crazy. It’s the simplest thing because I never did simple things. I always maximize my hands. Even you, this chord here, this is basically the base for these.
That’s where it starts. This one, I remember this one about a ten-year-old that was your tribal collection.
It was a pivot moment when I just touched the material, and I was like, I haven’t done anything with that. How can I make something affordable, cool, playful, endless, so that people can just be playful that you don’t need to think too much.
Sometimes it’s like I just see a fava bean and I get worked up. I just want to take that home with tarragon and butter done. What I love about your work, too, is that it’s so obviously soulful. If you’re ever in LA or you just go online, you’ve got to go check out his stuff because what I love too is that Juan is so good at it. There’s always a not-obvious element, whether it’s the class, like, “It looks like a simple pearl bracelet.”
No, the class or whether there’s a little gem in the back end. As you said, I’ll see a ring and it calls me, and then I see the price. I realized that on both sides, you have this embedded diamond jewel, and it’s not to be flashing. Your stuff is not looking at me, even though it has presence, but you have to get it and appreciate it. You keep getting surprised because you see new, different things.
There’s always a skull necklace. There’s always detail hidden behind the scenes on the actual pieces we create. I focus on the necklace you’re talking about, the skull necklace, from about three feet away, you can never recognize it, because it just looks like very simple beads with a little texture in it. As closer you go in, I was like, “Wait, these are skulls?”
The Art Of Personal Expression: Jewelry As An Extension Of Self
It was amazing. I show it all the time. It’s fun too, because it becomes a conversation piece. I’d love to hear your take on this. As somebody who works very hard to be present and to love life, I always say I’m the richest guy in the world because I want everything I have, and I’m not trying to have anything I don’t want. I’m just grateful. I love it all. I think people get confused at like, “I don’t need stuff. That doesn’t make you.”
What I always say is that what we wear, what we eat, is part of who we are. It’s only a negative thing if you do it for the wrong reason. If I put on my Rolex because I want somebody to notice it, now it’s not right. When I put on this ring that I bought from you fifteen years ago, and every time I put it on, I have to pause. It’s a feather dipped in detail. It’s like I’m using it. It’s not using me.
This is a great way to say it. The way you said it is like elements that we have in life are there to make us happy and to enhance our being. Jewelry for me it’s the salt and pepper on my meal.
Well said, I love it. Without it, you don’t taste anything.
It’s those ingredients that make the meal. Of course, who we are internally, how we dress up, how we look, how we show up is the actual meal. For me, the jewelry is always the spices on top that will make it different. If you put a little bit too much salt, sometimes it’s delicious. On a very well-crusted steak with the right salt on it, it’s like, “I needed that crunch of salt on it.” For me, it’s always been the salt and pepper and my reminders and my tattoos.
I can choose by my energy that, if I want to wear more today, I want to have less tomorrow. I can play with this in the circle of energy that I have at that time. For me, I would call it purpose. The purpose of my wearing it or me making it for myself is for me to feel great, for me to feel I love it. It’s really who I am. Jewelry is just one outlet that makes my being and my creativity. I do a lot of other things, but jewelry has always been the one I’m known for.
Even when I reach you with the sculpture in Mexico.
Elements that we have in life are there to make us happy and enhance our being. Share on XI did a couple of collaborations. Now I’m working with stones with crystals, and created these elements from Woodstein Studio with José, who is an amazing creative creator from Mexico City. This is just one thing, but I like seeing spaces, I like seeing elements, and I like to create energy within the space. I’m sure you’ve been in a lot of different stores in your life because you traveled the world, you’ve seen all that stuff, but you’re walking into that space. It gives you a feeling of small, cozy, interesting, and mysterious. You see something is different than any other retail store you come even when the gate is completely locked. I like being in all the different outlets of creation in aesthetics.
You cannot not be when you’re creative.
I like that. What I want to do more I want to go back to my true self of who I am, where I actually came from, and what really makes me happy. I do less than I used to do before. I used to go surfing a lot. I grew up in a beach town in the north of Israel. It was a village. I want to go back to surf more because this connection with the ocean is something that I miss. LA lately is tough to go surfing in. It’s not the best. I go once or twice a year on surf trips and love that in the world. This is something that I really miss. When I go back to the ocean, I have the same meditation, the same creative outlet, but on a bigger spectrum of my life that I don’t receive from materials.
I always tell people there’s no faster way to be present than to be floating on a surfboard. You don’t even have to be a great surfer. It is a forced presence. You are so in mother nature. It’s not like any other sport where you can plan out your plan, and forgive me for sports enthusiasts who maybe say I’m wrong. That’s okay. To me, Mother Nature just decides what to throw at you, and you either get it or you don’t. You cover up and roll, like it is amazing.
That’s what I miss.
You go back to the circular thing that you’ve got me thinking about. That’s what I love about what you do. I’m getting this stuff for me, but when I get what really feels like me because of what you’ve created, then it also gives the world a message on who I am because it is my presentation. It’s authentic because it started with me connecting with the pieces.
Tell me if you agree with this. If you see somebody, it doesn’t matter. The same jewelry on a different person doesn’t work. It’s like you don’t look comfortable, or you look like you want me to think that of you, which is very different. It’s like my brother-in-law, I’ve put him in this, sorry, Scott, I love you. I put him in this tailored Armani suit back in the ‘90s when I had my restaurant in San Francisco, and he was so uncomfortable.
It looked terrible on him because he felt terrible. When he went back to his loose, regular, whatever it was, J. Crew, he was himself again. It starts with you doing it for the right reasons, but then the beauty is you’re giving people the gift of individuality because now, I’m saying something about who I am, but it comes from an authentic place.
It’s exactly my intention. It is exactly what I am here for. I see this across all my clients who all come to our space to reconnect with themselves by finding something that they connected with.
You know what you guys do so well? I’ll never forget. I was feeling a little bit too cool. Above my status. I come in and I tell Juan I want these earrings and those pearls, the beautiful pearls. I was going to get two.
That’s not you.
He said it. I loved it because he saved me, and I respected it. I’m always learning. I want to learn. When people are honest, you never forget them. That will not look right. He said it in a great way. He goes, “Once every now and then could be cool.” It was such a gift because it wasn’t right.
Since the first day I started creating for people, I intended to create things that would build and strengthen their confidence, not the opposite.
Bravo.
Even if they think they want to do something or want to have something on them that does not reflect who they are, there can be this very fine line between amazing to looking like a joke. “Are you sixteen right now. Are you back with like a pearl earring? It’s not you.” Our job is to let them see it. We can only show what we think is right for them. Of course, I have to connect with that. I think he did really good work on your earrings.
You have curated me. That’s what’s funny. I walked into the store on Third Street because I felt inspired. I needed to have jewelry, and it called me. It’s been a beautiful process, and you and Juan have done that for me because you slowly evolve in each chapter. You have a different need, and it makes sense. Sometimes, like you said, I go back to this piece that I just found again, that you haven’t worked on for a while. It’s gotten naturally polished, and even once, sometimes you go, “Why does it look like that? It’s so cool because it has just done its thing.”
It’s exactly the way you said it. It’s beautiful to see my collectors, the people that with me almost from day one, having those elements that basically as well validated my being, pushed me forward, and with all thanks to you, as well as you and many of you who believed in what I do. I said I managed to touch from the good intention for people like-minded that are looking to have things that first nobody not everybody has, and it doesn’t give you that Rolex status. I want to show you I’m wearing a Rolex. It’s not a problem to wear a Rolex. You have 2, 3, 4, 5 watches. You’re wearing them for a different intention. You’re putting them on. It’s not about showing status with my jewelry, but about showing individuality. It’s like a collector.
It's not about showing status with my jewelry; it’s showing individuality. Share on XI walked in at Overthouse. “How are you, Gary?” I see Gary Glass.
I love Gary.
He’s got this pearl necklace on. I go, “Maor.” He goes, “Yeah.” He goes, “I met him at Burning Man. We had one spot on the plane left. He joined us. I love the guy.” See, that’s what you do for us because like, anybody can go, “Here’s my Chanel bag. Here’s my Birkin. Here’s my Rolex.” Those are all great things for their own reasons. Your stuff is like, “I got a secret. I’m part of the club.”
If you know, you know.
There’s a vibe. Same thing with Jeff at One Thread. I said, “You’ve got to be this guy, Maor.” He pulls it out, spins it. He goes, “He did this for me.” I think it’s going on for like two hours. How do you want to wrap this up? I’ve gotten a lot of it from listening to you. It’s no surprise because it’s just exactly what I would expect you to be and even more. What is your strongest belief, and how does it translate to your jury? Again, you’ve hit a lot of these things. Either answer that, or you just finish up the way you want to finish up if there’s something else that I haven’t let you say.
Being true to myself, being authentic with my intention, has led me to where I am today and will lead my future. This is one of my strongest beliefs being true to myself. I will never do something I don’t want to do. Authentic with my intentions is when I started making my first collections here as a brand as M Cohen or as Maor, my main and first intention was when I put the collection out is to change men’s perspective about wearing jewelry/accessories.
Isn’t it funny that we didn’t even talk about that, and that is what you’ve done.
I stayed with these intentions. Even if I touch one person a week, I have made progress in changing. When I got involved with the industry, men’s jewelry wasn’t really a category. It was okay. You know you have a watch, you have a wedding band, and you get a small curb link chain when you’re in the Bar Mitzvah or you’re getting a cross necklace from your family or just Joystar or whatever it is. This was the jewelry category.
I always believe that there’s something above that. You don’t have to be the jewelry-wearing guy, the diamonds, or the gold. You don’t have to be that guy. You can also be the guy that have those elements that really remind him of who he is, and really like could be completed with those reminders you have on. That was my intention. If I have my opportunity, hopefully, for the rest of my life, to do what I do and continue touching one person at a time. If we’re circling back, it’s always like that.
Authenticity And Purpose: The Core Belief Of A Jewelry Alchemist
You just closed the circle for us. I could talk for days with you. You’re amazing, man. Thank you so much. I’m honored to have you on. I cannot wait for people to hear this because it’s not only going to make them want to run and buy some jewelry, which they should, but it’s going to make them feel deeper as a human because you’re super soulful, and I really appreciate that.
Thank you for having me. It’s my first ever. I watch many podcasts. It’s part of my daily routine for different things. It’s my first time being in an interview that way. I don’t think it was an interview. It was just bonding and having fun, and it was great, and I feel great, and thank you, microphone, for voicing it out.
I’m honored, dude.
Thank you.
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About Maor Cohen
At the age of 13, Maor began making and selling jewelry in his seaside village hometown, a scenery that gave him a lifelong connection with the ocean and nature. A devoted surfer, Maor took off In his early twenties for a yearlong surf sabbatical around the world.
“Throughout that journey I carried a small box of wire, stones and charms so that I could create bracelets for the kindred spirits I encountered on my path.“
Landing in Los Angeles at the the end of his trip, Maor quickly realized that California was home.
“One day, after I’d settled in LA, I rediscovered the jewelry box that I’d carried around the world.”
Rekindling his passion for craftsmanship and creation, Maor was inspired to make jewels for friends around LA. Within a few years, he opened a flagship showroom, M.Cohen, in Los Angeles.