GOOD Spotlight: The Artemisian

Give us a brand that embodies sustainability while also celebrating a person’s unique style and you can bet we’ll be forever fans.

Behold, The Artemisian—a bespoke jewelry label that up-cycles vintage pieces into wearable art. Led by artist and designer Marisa Incelli, The Artemisian evokes a bygone spirit of sentimentality and function that we’ve seemed to have lost through modern day consumerism.

We were thrilled to get the opportunity to chat with Incelli about the purpose and intention behind these incredibly unique pieces, her creative process, and what’s next for our new favorite jewelry brand.

Marisa, you say that The Artemisian is more than a jewelry brand, “it’s a lifestyle”. Can you tell us more about that? 

We are inundated with endless choices. I think that what you wear, and how you choose to adorn yourself speaks to how you make choices and what your values are. Collectors of The Artemisian are awakening to themselves. They are mindful individuals that look deeply at their oneness with all things and as such, pay attention to the details of their purchases, the food they eat, the music and popular culture they choose to allow in. So we say that the jewelry is not simply a sparkling adornment for the body but rather a tool for intentional living, a shift in consciousness—a lifestyle.

SO MUCH YES. Your pieces are stunning. What inspired you to launch The Artemisian?

Thank you! I began as a conceptual performance artist and printmaker. I have always had a penchant for creating from preexisting things. I have never met a blank white paper sketchbook that I liked, my sketchbooks have always been repurposed books someone was throwing away, the older and tattier the better! I once did a whole series on cultural appropriation using these giant repurposed wallpaper sample books. It is deeply satisfying to repurpose or up-cycle objects, I wanted to create a company that did this, that did not contribute to our mass disposable culture behavior. We have come such a long way since I began in 2008.  Re-use and recycle are mainstream concepts and much easier to talk about now than when I first started trying to bring these collections to market in New York, Paris and Tokyo. No one knew exactly how to define or categorize or sell our pieces. It was a huge learning curve but we are totally there!!  

The first collection I ever made came from a shoebox full of vintage watches my grandparents handed down to me. The fairydust band inception was at that moment. I looked at the gorgeous (albeit outdated) women’s wristwatch in front of me and began thinking about the present moment.  This watch no longer worked and fixing it, though possible, was expensive and, with the dawn of the smartphone, redundant. It was at THAT moment that the concept came to life. The fairydust band: a zero waste, up-cycled original antique watch now served as this talisman for living in the present moment. I filled the face with shattered mirror shards to further layer the significance of this up-cycled watch, a symbol to remove the filters or our veils of behavior and remind ourselves to be authentic. 

Wow. What a eureka moment! We’d love to know all about your process. How do you find your vintage pieces and how do you visualize the end result? How much time is involved?

The process is similar for each new collection.  We have connected with ten or so antique dealers across the globe, in Edinburgh, Paris, London, New York, the Midwest and Philly to create a beautiful relationship of The Artemisian aesthetic and the desire to repurpose, not destroy, a perfectly functioning watch or a well preserved antique. I’m drawn to the Victorian and Art Deco periods of craftsmanship and look for pieces to work on the concepts I am looking to communicate. Each collection takes on form through writing and individual stories first - and then I find antiques that I feel embody the story. No two pieces are ever identical. Each piece is made one at a time locally on Philadelphia’s famous jeweler’s row making the carbon footprint of our pieces super small.

There’s such magic in preserving something old and elegant and turning it into something new and meaningful. Some call it alchemy⁠—how do you explain this transformation? 

I have thought a lot about alchemy, our last collection was entitled this in fact. Yeats said, “The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” In some ways this is how I look at the objects I create, each piece is made with honesty, made with love, made with care for our planet. I seal each piece with a story to help the collector connect the dots and utilize this object of beauty as another tool in their toolbox towards raising their own consciousness. These magical aspects of love, and intention are alchemically transformed for the collector into powerful objects.

We know there’s more to YOU than The Artemisian. Tell us about your other expressions of artistry and where do you find inspiration as an artist? 

I use the medium of jewelry to communicate, but my beliefs stem from a 20 year disciplined yoga practice and philosophy as both teacher and student, fine artist and as a mother. I have a heightened awareness of people’s suffering and my constant studying and sharing is in an effort to lessen the suffering I see around me, as a bodhicitta in the world. I am impassioned to help others relieve the suffering they cause themselves. I use the tools that work for me and offer them as options. The mediums I use vary—from accessories, to writing, to performance pieces and prints - but the common thread is the goal of bringing more heightened awareness to tools for healing, intentional living, and authenticity. I recently created a performance piece called, “The Anatomy of Human Interaction”, which is a movement and sound healing performance that results in a sacred geometry drawing. The fashion world interests me much less than simply being human and observing human interaction, and the medium of performance art leaves the viewer to decide what they want to take away from each piece. The piece I think we will be doing for Good Fest, we can’t wait to share.  

What would you like people to know about The Artemisian?

We often create small pop ups - the best way to find out when and where is through our website and instagram. You can sign up for our newsletter which will let you know where we will be, what other forms the brand is taking on, workshops, and access to our custom-piece portal as well. The blog is another place to find out more about the ethos of the brand, where collections stem from and why I do what I do!!

What is something you want to tell the GOOD community about you or about your journey?

Like I said before, The Artemisian is a lifestyle. It’s like waking up and really looking in the mirror, it’s about creating a discipline for true honesty with yourself and then finding the tools that keep you consistent and on this path. So, The Artemisian aims to create and share these tools. Personally, I continue to study: modes of healing, yoga certifications, Reiki certifications, nutritional certifications, and my background of course in Fine Art and jewelry. I’m alive and teeming with inspired ways to nurture and care for others with my work. Just like The Artemisian—I won’t be boxed into one medium.

What’s next for The Artemisian?

We are working on a few exciting collabs for the next year! Glad to have found The Good Fest to collaborate on showing both our jewelry and our performance pieces. In March we are doing a Vintage pop-up during fashion week in Paris and talking with Wild and the Moon owner Emma Sawko—super cool! We’ve been accepted as a vetted seller on famed antique bidding site 1st Dibs, so look for fine pieces to be popping up there too!

Craving more? Follow The Artemisian journey here and here, and shop the collections here.

Images provided by The Artemisian.
In partnership with The Artemisian.