M’NAL Objects began in San Francisco, a city with a bridge the color of a dare.

The architect saw the reddish primer on the steel and thought he was onto something. I love that about this city. In North Beach, the poets had City Lights. Around the Haight, the hippies dressed like they had invented color, and the concert posters looked like they might start moving if you stared long enough. Years later, two people put air mattresses in their apartment and somehow the whole world ended up staying over.

That’s the San Francisco I want you to have a little piece of.

I started with necklaces because I love the feeling of a cool gemstone against warm skin. There’s that little hollow at the base of the throat where you can feel your pulse. Put a gemstone there and go about your day. At some point you’ll touch it without thinking, and it’ll make you smile. Nobody else knows why the hell you are smiling. You do.

Jewelry is where I’m beginning. I am already dreaming up a fragrance you would wear just to stay home, an IDGAF lipstick, or a delicate bijou for your bedside table. I would love for one of those things to end up halfway around the world, in the hands of someone who has never crossed that wild orange bridge. A little piece of this crazy city, wherever you are.

— Minal