I’m always looking for unique and quality vintage, antique, and handmade items to add to my wardrobe. So, it should be obvious that I’m an extreme Etsy fiend. I was lurking through the site when I first noticed Fila Arcana -let me tell you, if you’re into the film “The Craft”, you’ll love what Fila Arcana from Toronto, Ontario, has got going. The style is eerie yet delicate, mysterious and pure, like a witches student, or black magic lolita. Mina Sewell Mancuso, the High Priestess of Fila Arcana, hand-embroiders beautiful works onto pinback buttons, wall hangings, and peter pan-style detachable collars. All the designs she offers are inspired by “alchemy, the occult, and all things esoteric.” Items adorned with symbols, moon phases, beasts, palmistry, and more. All conjured by hand, the details in each piece are skillfully intricate, classical, and bewitching.
“I render secret things in colored threads.”
Not only can you wear Mina’s art, so may your dwellings. Fila Arcana also offers wall pieces like banners and circle embroideries on vintage linens. I seriously just want to be placed in front an old wood desk that is piled with books inscribed with Latin and lit by old wax-dripping candles, have Witch-Hunt (Blood Axis & In Gowan Ring) – “I Lay Stretched On Your Grave” or maybe some good ol’ Roman Chanting on loop, while browsing Mina’s Etsy shop. I always admire and respect DIY artists wholly, especially when they catch my attention like Miss Mancuso has.
So, I dared to ask the mistress some questions:
I. How did the subject of alchemy fall into your interest?
I began a period of intense interest and research into alchemy about two years ago, but it feels like longer because it happened at a time when a lot of different, long-standing interests seemed to be coalescing. At the time I was reading a lot about freemasonry, Jungian psychology, the history of western esotericism… so it could be a bit of a chicken/egg scenario. I’m not sure what it was exactly that brought alchemy into my purview, but it just seemed to make sense, and captured my attention completely with its elaborately coded symbolism and secrecy. I began embroidering the images in part as a way to consider them more deeply, and to spend more time with them.
II. How long does it take you to finish a piece?
It really depends… I try to keep track at first but then usually lose count on the bigger pieces (I listen to a lot of podcasts and audiobooks while I’m working so sometimes I can say “oh, this one was the length of six Radiolabs” or something like that). On average the art pieces take anywhere from 5 hours up to maybe 25 for the biggest or densest, though I tend to work on them in short bursts. The Rosarium Philosophorum piece went everywhere with me for a whole summer, from South Carolina to Ottawa.
III. What’s your favorite book?
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, or 2666 by Roberto Bolaño. I’m pretty indecisive so it’s going to have to be both of them.
IV. The Zodiac, are you into it, and what is your sun sign?
It’s never been something I put a lot of time into but I guess I’d say I’m into it, at least in a casual way. I’m a Leo on the cusp of Cancer.
V. Have you experimented with Alchemy and/or magic, or is it just for aesthetic value and intriguing to you?
My primary interest has always been with tarot cards; I got my first deck when I was quite young and they’ve always been something I turn to. I think my concern when it comes to other forms of magic is that I’m not comfortable utilizing something I don’t fully understand, so the fact that I’ve never dabbled in that side of things is because I suspect there is really something to it but I haven’t been able to figure it out. The combination of fascination, skepticism and discomfort is almost certainly what keeps me coming back to the subject for further exploration, at least as an aesthetic subject if not a practical one.
Alchemy is interesting because there seem to be two schools of thought. There is the one that says yes, you can turn base metals into gold (or get some prima materia from the morning dew or something like that) and then there is the metaphorical, psycho-spiritual side. I’ve met someone who identifies as an alchemist of the former type, conducting real experiments with physical matter, however at the time I was still quite new to the subject and it must not have seemed worth it to him to divulge his hard-earned secrets to a neophyte, so I’m still mostly in the dark about what it means to be a practicing alchemist in the 21st century.
I find I get more mileage out of the psychological practice of alchemy (which, yes, I realize the practical alchemists tend to frown on). When Carl Jung outlines the ways in which a highly coded image represents a mental transformation rather than a physical one, I find it more compelling than the idea that I could turn lead into gold (which is apparently something molecular physicists can do now, in any case). These images have remained compelling throughout the centuries because there is something about the symbols that resonates more deeply than language, yet the meaning is hidden from us. To be able to take an image, beautiful in and of itself, and then decode the many layers of meaning hidden within it is a deeply satisfying prospect to me.
VI. What genres of music do you favor? Some of your favorite artists?
I find genres to be troublesome and misleading these days, but I guess a lot of what I listen to falls under a broad “indie” umbrella. Radiohead, Grizzly Bear, Yo La Tengo, and of Montreal are some artists that I return to frequently. This year I’ve also been really getting into opera, and I’m lucky that Toronto has two amazing companies (the Canadian Opera Company and Opera Atelier). It is a nice bit of synchronicity that Opera Atelier is putting on The Magic Flute in the spring; Mozart was an active freemason and I’ve heard tell that there is a lot of coded alchemical imagery in that particular opera.
VII. Understandable. What are some of your fashion muses?
Lately I’ve been really into Edwardian clothing, and trying to figure out how to modernize the elegance and ease of the Edwardian silhouette without it looking like I’ve walked off the set of Downton Abbey. I also have a weakness for looking at haute couture that I could never possibly wear: Alexander McQueen, Jean Paul Gaultier, Dior. And I’ve recently discovered the Russian designer Ulyana Sergeenko whose clothes I absolutely adore and would fill my closet with if I could.
VIII. Do you plan on adding any new clothing items to your shop other than collars?
Clothes are tricky because they inevitably wear out, or become stained or faded, so you can become stuck with a beautiful embroidered detail on a piece of clothing you no longer want to wear. That’s why I like doing the collars and other kinds of accessories; they don’t require frequent washing or undergo a lot of stress. That being said though, I may branch out a bit in the future and see what else I can do with the shop; the retail aspect of all this is new to me.
IX. Coffee or Tea?
Coffee. I do like a good cup of tea, but coffee has me in its thrall.
X. Yeah, coffee is totally my choice too. When did you first “open up” your online shop?
July of 2012. In December I was part of “City of Craft”, a fantastic Toronto craft show where I was able to talk to people and meet other crafters; I’m hoping in the future to balance the online shop with more in-person shows.
XI: How long have you been into embroidery?
My mother taught me when I was ten or eleven (probably around the same time she gave me my first deck of tarot cards). In middle school I took to embroidering all my clothes, pillowcases, whatever I could. I sort of lost interest in it when I was a teenager, but then went back to it about four years ago, as something aesthetic and meditative that I could do when not studying or working.
XII. Do you have a Facebook page for Fila Arcana?
No, until now I was sure I didn’t need one!
XIII. Do you partake in any other artistic doings?http://www.minasewellmancuso.com/director)
XIV. Anything else you’d like to mention? Something about Fila Arcana, your life, anything random?
I have a habit of undisciplined collecting; the closer my apartment gets to resembling a wunderkammer, the happier I am. Also, if anyone reading this has any esoteric texts to recommend I would love to hear of them; the more I read the more I realize I’ve barely even scratched the surface.
Wander into Fila Arcana yourself by clicking HERE.
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