Join the inner circle
PatreonNIGHTLIFE REPORT · FOUNDERS & CREATIVES
Marianna Di Giansante · Founder and creative director, Argilla NYC · Brooklyn · @argilla_nyc
The Brooklyn founder of Argilla NYC sculpts every porcelain ring by hand, refuses the mold, and has no team to blame but herself.
We asked Marianna the Nightlife Report founder questions. The answers below are printed exactly as submitted, without edits.
The interview
What was the moment you stopped playing small, and what did you do the very next day?
One day while working my job as a line cook in a restaurant, I found myself imagining the food I prepare served on vessels of my own making. The next day I was in my first pottery class.
Now I look at every object and wonder how it would come out in clay: a ring, a scoop, and a list that keeps getting longer.
What game is the rest of your industry playing that you refuse to play?
A mold would be faster, but it would also make every ring a copy of the last one.
What's the boldest bet you've made on this brand (price, production, a hire, a show), and how did you justify it when others played it safe?
Opening a second studio on Elba, an ocean away from Brooklyn, and splitting the year between two countries. On paper, one ceramicist with two studios doesn't add up, but Brooklyn is where Argilla started and Italy is where I started.
sea glass, sand from the beach, and whatever other treasure I find there, worked into the porcelain.
If you restarted tomorrow, what would you do bigger and sooner?
Not sooner. Porcelain has its own time.
What are you putting into the world in the next 90 days that proves you're moving?
I'm only now bringing soldering and metalsmithing into my work, and it's a lot of fun. Fire still amazes me: first on the stove, then in the kiln, now under the torch.
Picture ten times the audience you have today. What has to change in how you and your team work to get there?
I'd make rings to order. Porcelain has its own time, so ten times the audience would mean a longer list, not a faster hand or a different one.
What almost killed a launch, show or shoot, and who on your team refused to let it die?
There's no team: I design, make and photograph everything myself. If something goes wrong, at least I know who to blame.
If you got one cover frame, which image, piece or look would it be, why does it carry the whole idea, and who made it with you?
A shadow wearing one of my rings. There's no face and no name, but the ring is enough to imagine who's wearing it. The ring speaks for itself.
What's the one detail in your work (a stitch, a light, a song, a scent, a gesture) that only your team notices but that changes everything?
The inside of the ring. Nobody sees it, but I always polish it with care.
When you're not in the room, what one sentence do you want people saying about your brand?
Wait, that's porcelain?
Isn't a porcelain ring fragile?
About as fragile as any fine jewelry. A diamond solitaire can chip if it hits something hard, and the lustre on my rings, like a pearl, doesn't love harsh substances. The real enemy is a marble countertop. Concrete is a close second.
Follow @argilla_nyc · argilla.nyc
Lillith Magic · Directed by Anthony Perlas
New stories, dates and launches. A few emails a month. Adults only. Unsubscribe anytime.