goodwill hunting

the anthropology of modern adornment may sound like a curious class offering from the pages of a college catalog but just happens to be one of the inspirations behind meesah, honolulu designer melisa medalle's recently launched collection of forgotten and unloved castoffs transformed into "new" original designs.

living green is nothing new to the former ad exec who credits her bay area childhood for laying the foundation of her 24/7 sustainable lifestyle. years later, a visit home became the inspiration for taking melisa's on & off jewelry making hobby full-time after admiring a friend's recent acquisition of random jewelry goodness scored at a flea market. the proverbial light bulb (cfl, natch) moment followed, and upon returning to the islands melisa began scouting thrift shops and other sources for jewelry to deconstruct.

nani aho

lavern

meesah soon followed featuring one-of-a-kind designs composed with a mix of vintage, found and rescued findings. the idea is to close the loop (reduce - reuse - recycle) by remaking jewelry into more "earth friendly adornment". there are currently three collections - nani aho transforms repurposed fishing line from its utilitarian roots into unisex style while vintage lucite and recycled gemstones, beads and other bits have been reincarnated to create lavern and ligaia.

to keep meesah's carbon footprint small, packaging is kept to a minimum and made of 100% recycled material printed with plant-based inks. and, while melisa is working with neighborhood boutiques like chinatown's into to keep the collection local, a handful of limited edition pieces will be stocked exclusively in the online shop for far away fans.

p.s. click over to the official website to learn how you can win a meesah design!

{photo credit: patricia hom}