This Los Angeles-based jeweler intricately incorporates details from her clients’ lives into her custom bridal designs.
Bespoke bridal jewelry designer Maggi Simpkins has made a name for herself with creations that beautifully mix vintage inspiration and elements from the natural world. Based in Los Angeles, California, the jeweler is known to include small romantic details and symbols that are specific to her clients’ love stories. Behind the scenes of her lovingly curated and popular Instagram account, she reveals how important the choice of center stones and meticulous drawings are to crafting dreamy engagement rings and future heirlooms.
What is so special about creating custom jewelry?
I love how jewelry has the power to tell a story. When you create a custom piece, you are able to infuse someone’s story a little deeper into that piece, allowing it to serve almost as a memento.
How did you get started in the industry?
I have been making jewelry all of my life, since I was a very little girl. I fell into designing fashion jewelry professionally back in 2009, and then took a job working for a family-owned diamond wholesale company, Golden State Jewelry, in 2011. That’s when I really started to learn about fine jewelry and the diamond industry. After that, I took a job working for a fine-fashion jewelry designer, Ron Hami, for a couple of years before finally going out on my own in 2015.
How has your style evolved over the years?
I think my style is a bit more toned down than it used to be. I used to really love super-ornate, intricate things, and I still do, but as far as my personal style is concerned, I am really gravitating toward clean lines. It has been interesting trying to combine those two worlds. I am forever influenced by vintage, but I see it shifting into a different era.
What has been the most challenging bespoke work?
There isn’t anything that I find particularly challenging about the bespoke process; I really love all of it. But I would say maybe it’s most challenging when someone comes to me and doesn’t know what they want. I like to think I can make almost anything, but I can’t make it if you don’t have some direction of what it is you’re wanting.
Do you see common traits among your clients?
For the most part, they are all extremely thoughtful. I think when someone makes the decision to reach out to me to have a custom piece made, it takes a level of thoughtfulness that they are taking the time and energy to spend eight-plus weeks collaborating on creating the perfect piece of jewelry for their loved one.
What are your main sources of inspiration?
I find myself really inspired by nature and architecture. Being outside in nature inspires and evokes a feeling in me to create, while architecture inspires my actual design — the structure, texture and lines.
How do you source your diamonds and gemstones?
It really depends on what I am looking for. Since all of my work is custom, clients come to me with all types of requests, meaning my network needs to be varied enough to find all types of stones, conventional and unconventional. Over the years, I have collected a handful of gemstone and diamond suppliers that I work closely with [and] really trust to provide me with stones.
What is your most cherished personal jewel?
A bracelet I gave to my father that he wore every day up until his passing in 2013, and my mother’s engagement ring — I wear these two pieces every day and don’t take them off.
