The serendipitous start of the jewelry line SAMMA is as unusual and memorable as the line itself—it began with a robbery. When artist Hanna Sandin’s apartment was burgled and all her valuables and jewelry were stolen, she began stringing materials from her studio around her neck as a method of temporary adornment. The casual operation underwent an alchemical shift of Rumpelstiltskin straw-into-gold proportions, and her makeshift necklaces became beautiful jewelry that is both elegant and slightly offbeat.

Ms. Sandin, whose collection is available at Mc & Co in Williamsburg, has the mesmerizing ability to take the most banal object and give it a sense of worth by allowing its inherent beauty to shine through. An elegant woman of Swedish decent—and a familiar face among art and fashion circles—the six-foot-tall designer is rarely seen without one of her creations around her neck. Moreover, the collection of ropes and triangles, chains and knots seem a natural, wearable extension of the mobiles and sculptures she creates: a harmonious sing-song of complementary fragments.