About TULA :: Ethos and Care

Tulá means "poem" in Tagalog. In this spirit, Tula Designs is a practice of creation and community, offering gingerly handcrafted adornments inspired by the natural world, heritage and the lyrical human body.

Both poems and adornment are ancient languages. They transform the body into a site of meaning, marking what matters - identity, protection, belonging, beauty, expression - conscious and cultivated.

Both ask the body to carry what the spirit needs to say, arranging and rearranging its components and textures to suit. Armed with power. Formed by topologies of elements - living, lyrical, alive. A necklace at your throat, a poem on your tongue.

Each piece I create by hand holds handpicked natural elements from land and sea - whether they're stones and gems metamorphosed under Earth’s surface, or parts of a tree like Philippine betel and buri nut, carabao horn, bayong wood and bamboo, or bone and shell recycled from noble creatures. Through an ancestral, animistic lens, I honor every component’s material existence.

All packaging materials are recyclable or biodegradable.

All pieces are unique, and come with a care warranty for

free adjustments, repairs or hardware replacements.

Bartering and service trade requests always welcome.

(see info page for more details).

A % of each drop's profits are donated to a mutual aid or grassroots organization - from LA and the Philippines to Palestine. Your purchases so far have supported multiple water trucks to Gaza, legal aid for families impacted by ICE raids, and typhoon relief in the Philippines.

Kelsey Lacanilao (Lakan Ilaw) is a lesbian, Aquarius sun and first-generation Filipino artist and designer born in Los Angeles.

She started making jewelry as amulets, and as a way of feeling more connected with the Earth, her heritage & her body - to adorn it with self-made, carefully collected natural objects, stones, beads, and findings.

In addition to creating and ruminating and oscillating, she works full time at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and has been an arts and culture administrator for over 10 years.

She is a former independent bookseller, and loves collecting many things - from knick knacks, sacred objects, shells and rocks to rare books & even tatus on her body.

She is a lifelong hungry learner committed to anti-colonial values and finds reading a critical part of resistance labor. You can find links to free revolutionary/radical pdf books here.

She resides in Southern California with her life parter, their 2 rescue special needs pitbulls and rare crested gecko.

Mercer Street Books Seattle, 2016