Last Updated on September 15, 2026 by Cliche
What does a suitcase have in common with a 16th-century portrait of an English queen? In the hands of jewelry designer Marlene Haase, both can become the starting point for a ring.
Haase looks beyond jewelry for inspiration, borrowing from architecture, furniture, everyday objects, art and history, then translating those references into something new.
Two projects illustrate just how far that process can travel. One began with classic hard-shell luggage and became a bold black onyx and gold ring photographed by renowned German photographer Esther Haase. Another started more than four centuries earlier, with Hans Holbein the Younger’s 1537 portrait of Jane Seymour, and resulted in a contemporary platinum ring informed by Tudor jewelry.
The sources could hardly be more different. Yet both reveal the same idea at the center of Haase’s work: a jewel can be more than an ornament. It can carry a story.
A Journey in Black Onyx and Gold
The first ring belongs to a collection appropriately titled Voyage Voyage. Its rectangular black onyx body is framed by gold corners and punctuated with screw-like details. The shape is bold, architectural, almost industrial—a surprising vocabulary for a precious object.
“The main reference for the shape and construction came from classic hard-shell luggage, particularly the metal corners and visible screws that reinforce and protect the case,” Haase explains.
Credit : Esther Haase
Rather than disguising that functional language, she transformed it. Protective corners became gold details; a hard black shell became onyx. Something designed to withstand airports and train stations was reduced to the scale of the hand and turned into a sculptural object.
Travel is also personal to Haase. Growing up, she accompanied her photographer mother around the world, experiencing different places and cultures from an early age.
She was interested in a contradiction: a suitcase is constantly moving, yet its purpose is to contain and protect—to provide stability while its surroundings change.
“I wanted the ring to capture that contrast,” she says, “and become a small reminder for a cosmopolitan person to stay curious, travel, and seek new experiences.”
Black onyx reinforced the idea, combining a strong graphic presence with associations of grounding and inner strength. Haase developed the piece through sketches, illustrations, 3D renderings and wax models before the final assembly.
Capturing Movement
The ring later acquired another life through photography.
Photographer Esther Haase approached the designer while developing a story combining fashion and jewelry. The collaboration created an unexpected extension of Voyage Voyage: movement is central to Esther’s photography, just as it was already embedded in the collection.
“She brought a sense of energy and dynamism to the pieces that I was looking for,” Marlene says.
But Esther’s photography also introduced intimacy. Jewelry may be sculptural and precious, but ultimately it is worn against the body.
“Seeing the ring interpreted through her perspective brought these two sides together—the movement and adventure of travel, but also the intimacy of an object that is worn close to the body.”
If Voyage Voyage looked outward—to movement and contemporary life—another project sent Haase in almost the opposite direction.
More than 400 years into the past.
Left Picture: Collage from design process -Right picture Credit : Marlene Haase
A Ring Hidden in a Holbein Painting
The project began with Hans Holbein the Younger’s 1537 portrait of Jane Seymour, selected as a starting point through Haase’s collaboration with a specialist in Old Masters.
But it was not primarily the famous sitter who interested her.
It was a ring on her hand.
Haase began studying the jewelry in the painting and researching the materials, symbols and techniques behind historical jewelry. One detail stood out: the quatrefoil form of Jane Seymour’s ring, a symmetrical motif resembling a four-leaf clover or simplified flower. Left Picture: Collage from design process Right picture Credit : Marlene Haase
“I was fascinated by how such a small detail in the painting could reveal so much about the aesthetics and craftsmanship of its time,” she says.
Rather than reproducing the Tudor jewel, Haase wanted to take its recognizable form and ask what it might become in contemporary jewelry.
The collaboration brought two disciplines together. Her partner contributed specialist knowledge of Old Masters; Haase brought contemporary jewelry design.
“We were able to enter each other’s worlds,” she says, “bringing together the historical perspective of Old Masters with my background in jewelry and contemporary design.”
The goal was not reconstruction. It was translation.
From 1537 to the Present
Haase developed the quatrefoil through sketches, Illustrator drawings, 3D models and wax prototypes, changing its proportions and construction while preserving a connection to the original.
“We decided on platinum because over time it develops a beautiful patina that gives the surface more depth and creates a subtle connection to the historical piece,” she explains.
It is a revealing choice: a contemporary ring inspired by a 16th-century painting is made from a material expected to record its own age.
The object begins with history—and is designed to acquire one of its own.
Jewelry as a Miniature Artwork
Placed side by side, the two rings seem to belong to different worlds. One begins with travel, hard-shell luggage and black onyx. The other with an Old Master painting, Tudor symbolism and a centuries-old jewelry form.
For Haase, the process connecting them is remarkably consistent.
“Both rings reflect my interest in exploring materiality and my preference for bold, voluminous and clear forms,” she says. “Research is also an important part of my process.”
Each project becomes an opportunity to enter another field, learn its language and translate it into her own.
“With every project, I try to explore a new field, expand my knowledge and translate what I discover into my own design language.”
That may be what makes jewelry such an effective medium for her. Its physical scale is small, but its capacity for reference is surprisingly large.
A ring can contain a memory of childhood travel. It can borrow the engineering language of a suitcase. Or it can lead back to the court of Henry VIII through a detail almost five centuries old.
“I think jewelry is worn so close to the body that it can become a very personal object, carrying stories, memories, and cultural references,” Haase says. But she also sees jewelry as “a miniature artwork in its own right”—an object capable of retaining its presence and meaning even when it is no longer being worn.
Perhaps that is the connection between a suitcase and a Holbein portrait after all.
For Marlene Haase, each project is an invitation to enter another world—and then compress a piece of that world into something small enough to wear on your hand.
Read more jewerly articles at ClichéMag.com
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