Matthew Campbell Laurenza Serpent Cuff

You feel this one before you see it clearly: 235 grams of solid sterling silver, a cuff with real heft, coiled into a serpent that wraps the wrist. Matthew Campbell Laurenza works like a jeweler and a sculptor at once, and here he’s covered nearly every visible surface in a pavé of multicolored sapphires and blue topaz, then lit the whole thing with a single band of orange enamel — the one warm note against all that cool stone. It is hinged on one side, so a piece this substantial still slips on easily, and it’s unworn, exactly as it left his bench. A snake is the oldest ornament there is, worn since antiquity for its endless renewal; in MCL’s hands it becomes something contemporary and one-of-a-kind — a serious artisan cuff with the weight, literal and otherwise, to prove it.