Made in Vermont: Cryptcelium

BRANDON, Vt. (WCAX) – The whimsy of the woods, captured through art.

“We struggle to explain our art when people ask us that,” said Stephany Faris, one of two people on a mission to bring the outdoors inside.

“This all started from the obsession, really, with mushrooms and nature,” said Jonathan Faris, the other half of the equation. “We’ve realized how magical it is really, and we wanted to capture that.”

When this duo isn’t at work, you can find them in the forest, foraging for unique finds on the tail end of their life. Once they have their bounty collected, they use it to create art for their business, Cryptcelium. Jonathan and Stephany call their work a collaboration with nature, with the goal of celebrating the harmony between the natural world and human creation.

“We wanted to figure out how we could capture and preserve the life that’s in the Vermont woods,” Stephany said.

By incorporating dead and decaying elements of nature into art, the two believe they’re continuing the life cycle. Their studio is where foraged finds take on new life.

“You know the world sort of stops and you just sort of, you just get into a flow and it evolves from there,” said Stephany.

The things they make run the gamut, from wall hangings to table pieces, jewelry and candles. Each artist takes on their own projects, growing and expanding their skills a long the way to make new art.

“A lot of my pieces have accents that glow, so I have to do a lot of phosphorus,” said Jonathan. “That’s been like a steep evolutionary change.”

As you might imagine, Jonathan and Stephany’s work for Cryptcelium turns heads wherever they go. Be it at festivals or markets, their work always draws a crowd, and sometimes, a conversation.

“A lot of nostalgia is one of the cool things, too. They see something and it brings them back to maybe something they haven’t thought of in 20 years, 30 years,” explained Jonathan.

While it’s a challenge to put their art into one category, something that remains the same across the board is the heart and soul that goes into each piece.

“We really just wanted to make it so that you could have something that you could look at when you came home and just have a sense of peace with that,” said Stephany.

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