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Faerie MagazineSpring 2014

57faeriemag.com

o me, every little thing has its own life, its own story,” says Jose Agatep, who uses found objects to make the gorgeous terrari-

ums seen here. “People throw beautiful, unwanted things away all the time. I’m always looking at the sidewalk. I always take a moment to see more thanwhat my eyes are telling me.”

As a child in the Philippines, Jose watched his parents spend countless hours working in their garden, transforming the world around him into a lush haven full of mango trees, orchids, and all kinds of vegeta-JTM[�IVL�ÆWZI��7KKI[QWVITTa�PQ[�NI\PMZ�_W]TL�NI[PQWV�a terrarium as a surprise for Jose and his siblings—a tiny living world that enthralled and enchanted. But it would be years before Jose made a terrarium of his own. One Christmas a few years ago, he wanted to give gifts to his two closest friends, Christopher and Matthew, who had been encouraging him to be cre-ative. He found an old bottle under the kitchen sink and started gathering plants and objects around his

then-home in Philadelphia. The results were stun-ning. When Christopher and Matthew encouraged him to make more, The Slug and The Squirrel was born. Before long, Jose was selling his terrariums to ardent fans, supplying them to Anthropologie, and being featured in the New York Times Maga-bQVM��.WZ�\PM�ÅZ[\�\QUM��XMWXTM�KITTML�PQU�IV�IZ\Q[\���<WLIa�2W[M¼[�;IV�.ZIVKQ[KW�[\]LQW�Q[�ÅTTML�_Q\P�

rocks, driftwood, moss, and other bits of ephemera he’s collected while roaming the streets and antique fairs of the city. He also heads to the mountains, beaches, and forests as often as he can, constantly on the lookout for unusual materials. And he’s be-come friends with some of the nursery owners in Half Moon Bay, who allow him to pick around their yards for malnourished and deformed plants. 0M� VM^MZ� SVW_[� _PI\� PM¼TT� ÅVL�� WZ� _PI\� SQVL�of story he’ll end up creating. Once, he says, he found a broken doll discarded on the side of the road, and ended up using the broken head on the

top of a terrarium. “There was something sad about her expression,” he says, “and something lonely and sad about the plants I used, to tell that story.” He doesn’t plan these narratives, but hap-XMV[�]XWV� \PMU��?PQKP� Q[�_PI\�PM� TQSM["� ÅVLQVO�what’s hidden in the world and bringing it to life.

In his studio, too, he’ll start from “one tiny thing in mind,” an idea or an image or a feeling. He’ll pick a vessel from any number that he’s collected—ancient jars, bottles, pocket watches, glasses, vases, etc.—and start gathering various rocks and plants and shells and bark and other textures on hand. He’ll add in a rock, for instance, and see how it looks. Does it look like a mountain, a cliff, a beach? For him, each object holds life and meaning, and the materials themselves direct him. A rock he thinks _QTT�TQM�ÆI\�MVL[�]X�[QLM_Ia[��)�NMZV�_QTT�]VN]ZT�QV�an unexpected direction. Stories will reveal them-selves. “It’s like I’m helping the materials be the way they want to be,” he says.

Learn more at Slugandsquirrel.com, and ÅVL� 2W[M�[� LM[QOV[� I\� .IMZQMUIO�KWU� IVL�Paxtongate.com.

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