Miami-Based Miansai Finds Art In iPhones With Help From Artist Gab Bois

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By Cassell Ferere originally published on Forbes.com

Miansai is handcrafted jewelry by its founder Michael Saiger, creating elegant art objects made in Miami. With the help of his wife Rachel, the Miansai brand has cultivated its local business of artisans, based in the Wynwood Design District, into a global name found in department stores, boutiques, and on platforms like Saks Fifth Ave., Bloomingdales, and SSENSE.com.

The native New Yorker Micheal Saiger began making jewelry while studying at the University of Miami, noticing a lack of designer jewelry for men. He found trinkets, relics, and antique pieces that he revived and crafted into wearable works of art. A mother who owned and operated an antique store, Saiger was keen to source out illustrious relics and convert them to jewelry. 

By 2008, Micheal Saiger launched Miansai, a mashup or portmanteau of his full name, diligently fulfilling department store orders uncertain he could fill. At that time, Saiger was privy to brands like John Hardy and David Yurman dominating the men's jewelry market. Eventually, coming to terms with making jewelry he'd want to wear that was elevated and still understated. 

Michael recalls this moment he would manifest his ideas as an organic feeling curated through his upbringing. “It was cool to create something that hadn’t been done before in men’s jewelry. Because of how I grew up - around antiques and design - converting the pieces and bringing them to life felt natural to me.”

Fast-forward to 2022, Miansai has elevated its operation as a vessel for artists like Gab Bois of Montreal to display her handcrafted surreal-fashion pieces. The Gab Bois collaborative collection was launched at Art Basel in Miami at the Miansai Wynwood headquarters and gallery space. 

There, the Miansai team spends time drawing up collections of jewelry pieces and can globally source the materials like metallics and leather from reputable factories in Italy, Turkey, and Asia. Some jewelry pieces and accessories are made there in whole or portions. Miansai jewelry pieces are sampled, plated, cleaned, refurbished, and assembled all in-house.

Bois is well-known, and in her own right, for her subversive take on fashion garments and accessories made from found objects. Within her creation process, Bois can take months to a year to complete pieces like her Scrabble-letter dress and purse or something more delectable, like her woven sweater made of ‘Sour Power’ belt candies.

"I was thrilled when the team reached out [to me] because one of my main goals for this year is to work on more physical products," says Bois. "I want to take my ideas and concepts out of the digital world and into people’s hands and houses, and this opportunity is 100% aligned with that goal."

For Miansai, Bois has refurbished iPhone pieces into wearable jewelry. The camera lens and chip in our iPhones are repurposed and made into adornments for a bracelet, rings, earrings, and necklace pendants in the Miansai staple minimalist aesthetic. Each piece was carefully extracted from the iPhones by Bois. Her delicate hand as an artist is intricate to her creations involving food items like crackers or banana peels. 

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