Guns and Rosaries

Images courtesy of Miansai

Michael Andrew Saiger understands the value of a statement piece. The 22-year-old Miami-based entrepreneur and jewelry-maker’s debut collection has the antique feel of the vintage auctions and estate sales his mother used to take him on, but with a distinctly provocative edge. His first collection for his self-created—and just-launched—line Miansai has rosaries ending in grenade-shaped pill-boxes or rings topped with gold-plated razor blades. “All of my designs,” says Saiger, “especially the more controversial ones, are meant to get people talking.” Any ring can feature a stone or gem, but Saiger’s pieces have a tongue-in-cheek darkness  only a New York native could produce, like the hollowed out bullet-turned-vial with a miniature spoon inside, for whatever, um, powders the wearer happens to keep.

Saiger spent his youth accompanying his mother on trips antiquing, collecting military and mechanical paraphernalia, hanging Indian motorcycle parts or old knives around his room, and collecting pellet and BB bullets. Perhaps it’s psychological then that his sense of the imperfect and perverse is clear: clever additions like eyeglass chains made from nooses or sterling silver bullet cufflinks are Saiger’s forté, and oxidized silver or leather ties make his collection rugged enough to be truly male-friendly. And fortunately, whether the drug-and-gun allusions are meant to be literal or not, each item is handmade and based on pieces Saiger has collected. Just don’t be surprised if a pendant turns out to be a roach-clip in disguise.

Miansai is available on the web site.