San Diego-based jewelry designer Jillian Sassone of Marrow Fine recently celebrated 10 years in business, the past seven in her One Paseo jewelry box in Carmel Valley.
Sassone specializes in using stones to tell a story, creating “modern heirlooms made to be worn, loved and lived in”. Her independent fine jewelry line includes engagement rings, wedding bands, and one-of-a-kind stunners.
The name of her brand, Marrow, is about “honoring the good old bones of past pieces”. She helps clients reimagine heirloom jewelry, saving the stone(s) they love and setting them in a new way or style. She has given a new look to passed-down family jewels and wedding rings and can reimagine an engagement ring after a divorce, transforming it from bridal to a right-hand ring. She has even created jewelry from diamonds made of a loved ones’ ashes.
“It’s kind of cool to have that experience and to have people trust you with such precious, special things,” Sassone said. “I think the only other job that would be as fun would be having an ice cream shop because people are always excited, they’re always happy.”
Sassone has been celebrating her 10-year milestone all month, and also hosted an anniversary party at the store on March 20. She said it was almost like a wedding, looking around the One Paseo shop to see it filled with all the cool people she has been fortunate to meet through the business, mixed with close friends, and the employees and clients who have been instrumental to Marrow over the last 10 years.
“It’s been pretty great,” she said.
Tim and Jillian Sassone at the Marrow 10-year anniversary party. (Taryn Kent)
After stops in Hawaii and New York City, Sassone landed in San Diego 15 years ago with her husband and business partner Tim. They have called the “magical” Cardiff-by-the-Sea home for the last 11 years, raising two daughters with no designs to leave any time soon.
The multi-faceted Sassone is originally from Washington state, growing up the daughter of a commercial fisherman in Chimicum, a small town on the Olympic Peninsula that she said had more cows than people. She earned a full-ride scholarship to Hawaii Pacific University to play the saxophone and after graduating, worked in public relations in California. For five years she lived in Brooklyn and Manhattan, where she met her husband.
For the bulk of her career, she was in corporate sales and while she enjoyed it, she found she was really missing a creative outlet. Since she was a little kid she had always enjoyed art, doing crafts, collecting rocks and stones, and painting. “Growing up in a really small town, everybody worked really hard and that was the model I saw and I thought that was the deal,” she said. “I never really thought that art could be my job.”
In 2017, when her beloved grandma died at the age of 91, she left her a couple of heirloom jewelry pieces. One of them was a pair of earrings that contained precious opals. “It wasn’t an everyday piece and I wanted it to be that, not just sit in a drawer or in a shoebox,” she said. “I started daydreaming of what it could be, sketching magical little things.”
She knew a wholesale jeweler who was able to take her sketch, her design of a new opal ring, and turn it into a reality. “I was hooked and I loved it,” she said. “That’s how it started, I was just designing for myself.”
She had collected a cache of stones from her grandmother and she started to repeat the process of saving up and making a piece, saving up and making another piece. Soon people started stopping her to ask: “Where did you get that ring?” seeing it sparkle on her finger as she held a coffee or had her hands splayed getting her nails done.
“It gave me the impetus to think that it could be something bigger,” she said. “I had no plans, I was just having fun.”
She won’t ever forget the one day after finishing the opal ring she was getting a manicure at Nails 101 in Encinitas and telling her manicurist all about the ring she had made, the opal set studded with turquoise and black diamonds. Both women sitting on either side of her ended up asking if she could make them that same ring.
She told them both yes even though at the time, she wasn’t quite even sure how to source another opal (she eventually discovered the San Diego Jewelers exchange downtown). She also quoted a price that she ended up losing money on, but she was just so excited by the prospect of her first sales.
“I just kept saying ‘yes,’ and I figured it out,” Sassone said.
Sassone started learning on the fly, gleaning everything she could about stones and metals and the jewelry business by watching a million YouTube videos. Through word of mouth that first year, she ended up collecting about 250 clients, designing in her home at night while juggling a two-year-old and newborn.
After some time meeting up with clients at L’Auberge in Del Mar, she ended up opening her first studio on Cedros Avenue in Solana Beach. She cashed in her 401K to build her very first collection—no heirlooms, just all new Marrow pieces. She gained a huge following through Instagram, thanks to professionally staged and shot photos that really showed off the beauty of her work to a larger audience.
Her husband Tim also came in as a partner, which she said is the best thing to ever happen to Marrow.
“He loves to redline a contract, he loves to negotiate over a 5K diamond…I just want to design. He’s so good at filling in the gaps and that’s why our partnership works,” said Sassone.
Jewelry on display at Marrow in One Paseo. (Taryn Fine)
The Sassones with their daughter and family friends at the Marrow anniversary party. (Taryn Kent)
Marrow Fine employees and fans attended the anniversary party at One Paseo. (Taryn Kent)
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Jewelry on display at Marrow in One Paseo. (Taryn Fine)
Seven years ago, Marrow moved from Cedros to One Paseo, joining a line-up of stores from fellow women-owned local brands like Whiskey and Leather, Vandevort, Pigment and Urban Beach House. After re-upping their lease in 2023, she gave the shop a full makeover. Designed by Los Angeles’ firm Bells + Whistles, the shop has a modern and almost sculptural look, welcoming and warm, everything bathed in tonal pinks.
She keeps a studio off-site where she does most of her sketching and designing.
Materials are sourced from ethical partners all over the world,100 % reclaimed gold and conflict-free gemstones from Sri Lanka, antique diamonds from Los Angeles or dealers in New York, emeralds from Colombia, sapphires from Montana and Australia.
Expanding their reach, the Sassones opened a second shop in Newport Beach five years ago. They also had a space in Chicago for two years that they unfortunately had to close six months ago. Now with a team of 27 employees, Marrow goes on a trunk show to different cities every weekend.
Marrow’s mission is to create everyday fine jewelry for its clients, a wearable investment that is meant to last a lifetime and not only be brought out of the box on special occasions.
Sassone’s original opal ring is a bit like that—she still reaches to wear it a few times a week, a “magical piece of armor” on days she needs the extra support, a tribute to both her heritage and to how far she has come.
“I didn’t know anyone, this wasn’t a family business. It was just trial and error…when you’re starting out, you’re so naive you just keep going. If you make a mistake in this business, it’s an expensive mistake, so you don’t make it twice,” Sassone said. “Whenever someone brings an opportunity to me, I always say yes, and that’s served me well…saying yes and being open to the possibilities.”
Marrow Fine is located at 3665 Caminito Court, Suite #720, in Carmel Valley. For more information, visit marrowfine.com