I'm Marisa. I'm Thai, though I've called a few other places home too, California, New York, North Carolina, and London among them. Wherever I was growing up, my parents said the same thing whenever I left the house: mee sati, carry your awareness with you. It's a word derived from Pali, an ancient language of scripture, one that has lived and evolved within Thai culture ever since. To me, growing up, it simply meant: notice everything, move with intention, come home safe.

For over a decade I've wanted to start a jewelry brand. I've always been a little obsessed with it, whether it was something bought at a market in a place I'd never been before, or online on a day that just felt right. I never bought jewelry carelessly. It always had to be a good day.

That's when I realised what was missing. Jewelry tied to a story, to a specific moment, the kind of thing that brings you straight back to exactly where you were when you got it. A bit like a tattoo, but wearable in a different way.

Building a brand properly is a whole journey though, so I let the idea sit quietly in the back of my mind for years. I always knew I wanted to call it Sati. Funnily, I recently realised I'd sketched the logo on my phone during a flight, almost five years before any of this became real.

After a brief visit to South Africa ten years ago, I found a market just outside Johannesburg selling beaded jewelry, and that's where I first fell for symbolism properly, the idea that something small can carry real meaning, that the last piece you put on is often the one that finishes the whole look.

I've collected pieces everywhere since. Trinkets bought at fourteen in Greece, silver found in a market in Peru. I watched goldsmiths at work in India and admired the fine silverwork in Sri Lanka, amazed at how much skill goes into creating something so small. But it was the craftsmanship I found in Thailand that stayed with me most, careful and precise in a way that's different, and that's exactly why I knew Sati had to be made there. I've loved the craft of it for as long as I can remember.

Sati is sourced from Thailand and made to actually be worn and admired. I want jewelry that even I can wear and take into the ocean, surfing, swimming, diving, without worrying about it, and that's the standard every piece is held to. Finished to resist tarnish, in 925 sterling silver and gold vermeil, made to hold up over years.

I've initially developed these concepts and initial designs, now being brought to life with a designer whose eye I deeply admire, someone whose work you've likely already seen.