It isn’t news that we, from time to time, access the M.B.S catalogue (the official jewellery catalogue of our forbears M.B.Sirkar, from about eighty years ago) and recreate designs from there, either ...

It isn’t news that we, from time to time, access the M.B.S catalogue (the official jewellery catalogue of our forbears M.B.Sirkar, from about eighty years ago) and recreate designs from there, either in exactitude, if that’s your desire, or with our trademark innovation as part of the character of the jewel which otherwise remains the same as in the book.

It’s not wise to tamper with heritage, more so when it’s of the kind that’s ageless. Whatever change may be effected thus has to in no way compromise the integrity of the jewel, the alterations subtle enough to not make them seem foreign.

A 'TAYARA' TURNS COLLAR

This jewel, from page 4 of the M.B.S.catalogue, is termed a 'Tayara', the Bengali equivalent of the tiara, and was meant to be worn as a prominent head ornament. The curvature was made more narrow to suit the neck and the independent sprigs, richly floriated, were drawn into a single vine that curled in the middle to surround an elaborate rosette and then organically meandered up the two sides to form the collar.

A COMBINATION OF STYLES

Now, the whole ornament is of the joroa flat-work style which means the anfractuous vine’s mildly undulated and its various flowers and buds realised almost on the same plane. The central rosette differs : it’s a double bloom that’s revealed using the turquoise collet in the middle to ‘pin’ the pearl flower into the turquoise flower, thereby raising the bi-coloured blossom above the rest of the vine in a manner that attracts the eye and makes the frieze come alive.

A CALIBRATED SETTING

The entire jewel is pavé set, with pearls defining the foliate parts and both pearls and turquoise carefully calibrated to distinguish the flowers. The sinewy stems of the vine are left polished yellow gold because, colour-wise, it’s the perfect contrast to the mukto’r pata and firoza’r phul — here the jewel exceed its limits of mere design and technique to become truly magical — and ably complements their rich and cheerful opacity.

THE MAGIC OF AUTHENTICITY

Look carefully. The collar isn’t symmetrical, even though it might appear to be so at first sight. It’s as if the plant has been left to its own design. And, in a way, it has. There is a distinctly organic aspect to it and there are at least three different kinds of flowers showing on the same vine. You’ll know that even more when you note the leaves, new and old, to be all the same –– except in the swirling centre where it seems the creeper has discreetly coiled itself into a plant of varying character that’s birthed the wondrous central bloom.

Everything’s left imperfect (zoom in to see closely the infringement of what constitutes a 'balanced' ornament) and unrestrained and gives rise to a core that’s proudly playful. Pulchritude, it seems, can also come from the lighthearted.

Lacking any pretence to any high symbolism whatsoever, the jewel has no layered message within it. In fact, there’s nothing hidden at all. It’s all right there for you to see in sweet guinea-gold worked upon with dexterous hands to carve out for you this magical vine of many flowers with a prima donna of a blossom at its heart –– all unnamed.

It's merely joyous, this jewel. And it’s so because it isn’t calculated in its beauty.

A CODA OF FREE-WILLED LOVELINESS

All things in life cannot be evaluated, calculated or even fine-tuned. Or even if they can, they shouldn’t be. What’s the point in assigning ourselves a life we know all about when if that selfsame life is left unknown, uncharted, it helps us glide from youth to senescence with a beauty that’s so much more glorious than what we could ever imagine.

The Labanya Latika collar, in all its free-willed loveliness, personifies this very precept of spontaneity in the way we might live our lives — adventitiously, intuitively, impulsively even, but always with great beauty.

It's not often that you commemorate defeat in gold.

I haven't ever been able to tie into my braid a mala of kamini-kusum in the seven years that the tree in my garden's been bearing, à gogo, bouq...

It's not often that you commemorate defeat in gold.

I haven't ever been able to tie into my braid a mala of kamini-kusum in the seven years that the tree in my garden's been bearing, à gogo, bouquets of tender ivory blossoms. Belphul, juin, strands of madhumalati (they too are the evanescent kind), all I have woven into garlands for my hair — common flowers, and fragrant, that he so adored.

"Tulsi . . . ", he'd whisper, and snake my plait across his nuque, pressing his chest to mine so that the separation of our hearts by their beats could no longer be discerned, nor the figures of our flesh in their shape or gender ; even our breath seemed to match and merge, quiver for quiver, speed for speed, sigh for sigh.

At daybreak, when passion would turn to persiflage, and we'd mock each other for our amatory pursuits before drifting into sleep fortified by a fulfilling exhaustion, I'd pick the stray aestival blossoms from my torn mala off the hirtellous crest of his groin and trace my fingers from there through a meandering furrow of fine and curly and now untidy hair to the little well of his umbilicus, and then gently onto his bosom where his hirsuteness became the crown of the honey bush, lush and satiny, sprinkled with wilting flowers like tired stars come to rest, but from other skies.

We'd open the window to the bagan, and by the lustrous light of dawn I'd see the kamini tree in bloom, and know the heat of the sun from the day past had made it gravid, and that there was water in the air, for only as a foreteller of summer rain could its flowering be of such sweet-scented lavishness.

All the white blossoms of the garden perfumed our love ; only the kamini abstained, its flowers too tender and flimsy to be strung, their petals falling off, as if in protest, moments after the blooms were gathered from the tree.

As we drew our palpebral curtains upon the gamboge of a newly born day and turned it into morning twilight, I accepted defeat.

The kamini would never adorn me in life or love.

On a canicular afternoon not long later, having returned from his travels to distant lands, he quietly slipped me this guinea-gold jewel. As he rested it low upon my breast, he explained, "It's been blessed with kamini buds strung together like a festoon. As fruits — the bright red berries that, you say, ignite the bush — little polished orbs line the top. In the centre, holding them together is a hand-woven kamal chain that's symbolic of your lush braid.

It's a simple ornament that fulfils the one wish you never revealed to me : to wear upon you a garland of those fragrant blossoms. But remember, each Kamini-Kuri is now eternal, as are the fruits. Wear the mala only in my absence for then your heart shall well with love and make the flowers bloom and spread forth their fine perfume, and you'll feel me with you, and deep within you in the very shrine of your soul."

He kissed me then, and it rained. And the Kamini-Kuri made our love numinous and never-ending.

There’s a case for deriving jewels from jewels. And we’re truly delighted to make it possible for you to have your favourite ornaments from us, even if it involves a significant resizing and modificat...

There’s a case for deriving jewels from jewels. And we’re truly delighted to make it possible for you to have your favourite ornaments from us, even if it involves a significant resizing and modification of the original design, or breaking into bits or separating its several elements to reassemble them as a new goyna.

Last October, we gave you the Aad-Bastar necklace with matched earrings. Drawing from its character, and borrowing a few of its design elements, we bring you this light and lovely threaded jewel that’s not a classic Aad and has no reason to reference Bastar iron-work. Yet the bosses, forming a graded trio, each with their ball surround and chhela wire flower, are taken directly from the earlier necklace, the barfi drops (down to their single-karai finial) and the four-leaf clover on the connecting rings from the earring.

Look to the flanks and you’ll witness a pipe rondelle, a teota piece and two fluted bicone beads strung together to extend and complete the necklace. The pipe rondelle is almost similar (the ball chokhas have come together here whereas in the original they are seen at the edges of the pipe), the teota piece identical. Only the bicone beads are new.

Strung in smaragdine cotton and with a single emerald set in the middle of the central topa, this necklace was commissioned by a client who wanted a lighter set of the same idiom as the Aad-Bastar : something more casual and suitable for day-wear, and that she felt was more her kind of goyna.

That’s what bespoke is –– all about you, your life story, but includes some part of ours as well, and the artisan’s whose brave and blessed hands make real the jewel of your imagination. It stands against every attempt by new world commerce to reduce authentic handicraft to mere product and the act of purchasing fine gold jewellery to vulgar consumption.

Remember always : your bespoke jewellery speaks your character, tells your story, and, in time, makes the wonderful history of you evident to not only those who shall one day be the proud custodians of your goyna but to all who know you and love you and care for what you care. Even the smallest of jewels such as this have the power to draw out your inner beauty. And they forever answer to you.

All your ornaments need not be remarkable or extraordinary in the grand sense. It’s enough for some just to be beautiful in the light of your beauty, virtuous because they garland your virtues — in that their remarkability and their extraordinariness, to you, is secure. The Teota-Topa-Tutan Necklace is one such jewel.

Distinctly Edwardian in its construct, this supremely elegant festoon necklace in 18K yellow gold (you’ll know about the yellow bit later) is not of our design but a faithful replica of a family jewel...

Distinctly Edwardian in its construct, this supremely elegant festoon necklace in 18K yellow gold (you’ll know about the yellow bit later) is not of our design but a faithful replica of a family jewel the provenance of which remains adamantly unknown. Commissioned by a successful food writer/critic from Delhi (he left a spectacular finance management career in Singapore to follow his heart) for his married younger sister who resides for long in the States, the set took more than six months in manufacture during the course of which the flowers were incorrectly wrought, with the central collets soldered in place (when they should have been separately made and fitted), and had to be redone, all of them.

The brief was to realise the necklace in exactitude, including the aspect of age and patination of the original. The earrings, with their pearl drops, in absence of any to go with the actual piece, had to be designed to match.

The Form —— A Floral and Foliate Festoon :

Each leaf and petal is cut out by hand and then mounted on a frame. The tol-parh technique is used to undulate the surfaces of both, making the floral and foliate motifs alluringly palpable. Individual swags framing the large flowers are then linked together (each interspersed with a leafy spray of which there are four, the last two leading to the terminal boutonnières) and hung with dancing drops of leaves and pearls to form one continuous festoon. The collets on the sprays and flowers have been separately made and fitted in, making use of finely threaded posts that are turned into place. This you’ll never notice on your own, unless you turn the ornament to examine its structure closely. And why was this an integral part of the karigari ? —— because it lifts the centre up beyond the base of the petals and makes the jewel-flower that much more authentic. Also, the collets at the end of the swags are empowered to become a part of the form of the necklace, and this is imperative due to the fact that the eye sees the larger single diamonds as a continuous ‘line’ and that’s what gives the ornament continuity : the effect of an unbroken festoon.

The Setting Technique :

Pavé pervades, naturally, though the central diamonds, small and large, are all fitted into ‘glass’ collets with a sloping gypsy-setting to frame the gems and ensure the same idiom of craft prevails throughout the ornament. It’s a small detail, but a vital one in the experience of the final jewel.

The pearls on the dancing drops are like finials and are not set but rest on cups with a wire through their central bore holding them in place.

On the earrings, the larger pear-shaped pearls are capped and tied to the swag using twisted wires and a ring.

The Stones :

In the original necklace, all the diamonds were of the old brilliant cut and likely sourced from the famous Golconda mines. In this set, we have only modern brilliant-cut diamonds combined with farmed natural pearls, the latter all with bores. The diamonds are sifted for size and colour to ensure design integrity and a homogeneity of light dispersion.

Finish :

Quite in the manner the Edwardian jewels, in their time, would’ve been painstakingly put together, this set too has seen its share of disciplined manufacture. But there are reasonable differences. To start with, those — coming out of the Victorian era of mostly dark jewellery (remember, the Queen was in perennial mourning after her beloved husband’s passing and, as a result, made jet ornaments quite the staple of her time) — were deliberately set in platinum with an 18K/14K rose-gold backing to give them a brighter presence. In the case of our antique necklace, from which this one’s been drawn, the combination happens to be white and pink gold.

We did the new jewel entirely in 18K light-yellow gold which was then plated white with an oxidised finish on the surface. That imparted to it the necessary patina and as well the turn-of-the-century feel. Also, it provided for a yellow-gold option if in later years the preference of the wearer were to change towards the traditional Indian. The quality of stones would make the setting in natural gold no less mesmeric, but it wouldn’t have any more that inherent lightness of being.

It took three journeys to the workshop to get the polish-finish right. Still, it’s not perfect. If you magnify the picture, you’ll get to see glimpses of yellow amongst the dulled white, and even the white’s not even in places. Yet, perhaps it’s these very flaws that in some way determine the true character of authentic handmade jewellery and set its wondrously enduring beauty against the soulless consistency and clinquant orchidacity of machine-made or assembly-line ornaments.

Epilogue :

We aren’t greatly known for diamonds. But as an establishment specialising in bespoke we do have the resources to ensure the refinement required of jewellery set with all kinds of precious stones. While our metier leans more towards joroa, as far as setting-goyna is concerned, you’ll find our English- and European-influenced diamond ornaments are equally genteel of character and precise of craft. As for the designs, well, we and you create those together to achieve jewels of unique and universal beauty and timeless spirit.

The Mukto-Pushpa Hirer Mala is a case in point. If not for its delicate nature or the fineness of its manufacture, look to its flaws : if you find them, you’ll discover they raise the ornament from its material and decorative and mere stylistic value to a means of individual expression —— of art and life.

Detachment, in the most basic understanding of the word, can mean separation. And after a period of more than two months of forced silence we’ve felt that meaning more than ever in our heart and mind,...

Detachment, in the most basic understanding of the word, can mean separation. And after a period of more than two months of forced silence we’ve felt that meaning more than ever in our heart and mind, for what are we if not You reflected, distilled, enshrined and immortalised in the jewels that we make with You, for You.

Today, after seventy days of involuntary solitary confinement, we return with a simple oxymoronic jewel : a light Sita-har. Deliberately, it includes a crucial separation of the chains from the centrepiece so that the jewel can be worn in two ways : as a spectacular mother-and-child hand-fan pendant or as a long necklace.

In the latter guise, the simple kamal-ball side-chains — with their triple-sphere coupling (where two of the orbs are half-polished and half-wire, the pair bracketing a gold rudraksha) — that connect to the detachable centrepiece ensure the lightness and reserve of the ornament.

When worn as a pendant, the double hand-fan motif, its form and intricate detailing inspired by the hand painted bamboo hath-pakha made by the Mahali tribe of West Bengal, soars in its pierced-naksha lata-pata infill, sabu-dana surround, and triangular wire-ball scallop with a fringe of split-ball and plain-ball thokas. Ideally, it should be strung on interchangeable bead strands or bright thread tassels in colours such as carmine, turquoise, or black. You will, for certain, look nothing short of spectacular.

But this isn’t a spectacular comeback. If anything, it’s merely one that’s of a quiet beauty such that it’s both meaningful and pulchritudinous. Its virtues are in its simplicity, understated elegance, and a sophistication that speaks of art at once personal and universal. It’s the very spirit and soul of You, handcrafted with undiluted love and immeasurable regard, in pure guinea gold.

We are ever thankful to be among You — the greatness and beauty of You — again.

A Paroma pasha (not the actual one but the inadvertent design, with a prominent rose in it, which came to be known by that name thanks to the beautiful television personality, true-blue aesthete, a...

A Paroma pasha (not the actual one but the inadvertent design, with a prominent rose in it, which came to be known by that name thanks to the beautiful television personality, true-blue aesthete, and founder-designer of Kalakriti, Paroma Banerjee, who first ordered it) is commissioned. Later, a Sita-har is prospected but is asked to be made to go with the pashas — a Sita-har to match a pair of earrings, imagine — and besides the central motif of a rose, that needed to have some likeness to the ear ornament, the rest is left to us.

We devised a detachable side-chains model of necklace that would double up as a poshaki pendant, the three-line kamal-ball lengths available then as two slim and simple armlets. The central section is used with thickly strung coloured beads or pearl strands. Either way, it looks dramatic and powerful, and is a versatile way of putting an otherwise robust jewel to easier tasks of personal decoration, especially because the owner-wearer is the young mother of a gradeschooler and might find the adaptability of the pendant more suited to most occasions she'd be likely to attend.

The design sees pairs of happily tumbling paisleys situated at critical junctures in the necklace. The mangoes are granulated and ball-bordered affairs, each with a seed-pearl detail, that effectively contrast the pierced naksha of the centrepiece and thereby serve to draw attention to it. But notice (and, here, you zoom in) how tiny kalka pairs, on the faceted ‘maku’ surround of the naksha disc, placed at twelve, three, six, and nine o'clock, resonate with the larger Manipuri ones. This helps in integrating the floriated plaque with the rest of the necklace and brings a harmony to the contrast of chain-work, Manipuri detailing, and naksha design.

The single-rose plant is articulated in a swirling form around the solitary flower. There are smaller blooms around the rose in the middle, and all have a pearl tied to their centres. A double-rope border, also part of the single-sheet chased plaque, between which lies a march of barely discernible slim paisleys, helps direct attention to the florals. Below, a pair of kalkas with a ball-fringe each, hold fort. From it descends a three-tier fan-jhumka-jhumka, the first a void with pearls strung along its inner bottom edge, then a perforated naksha half-jhumka, and, finally, polish-pat half-jhumka with its own ball fringe.

This changes the game, and makes the jewel unique, gives it more volume, improves coverage, and, all-in-all, raises the ornament to that of a modern classic.

It’s named after Paromita, whose ornament this is. But we’ve taken the liberty of altering slightly that title so that ‘rosa’, in deference to the history of the goyna’s main motif, sits in the middle of it. And a wise young lady, who’s also a calm and considerate presence, becomes the very source of the ‘golap’, as if nurturing it to immortality and, in the process, becoming immortal herself.

Handcrafted in natural yellow guinea-gold (given a Bangla-polish hue), this svelte and versatile jewel is a contemporary classic that asks the love of its wearer and viewers alike. Give it — only if you feel it deserves your love.

Being the main ornament of a wedding set, this choker was designed first and then the fringe earrings (shown earlier this week) matched to it. The idea of substituting the sophisticated rose of our pr...

Being the main ornament of a wedding set, this choker was designed first and then the fringe earrings (shown earlier this week) matched to it. The idea of substituting the sophisticated rose of our previous ornaments and having two fragrant vines intertwine in a way at once distinct and inseparable came from a timber toolshed in the garden of a lodge in Darjeeling where a vibrant pink rambling rose seemed to grow together with a with slender vine bearing delicate white flowers. They were entangled in such a way that we’d think the blooms to be of the same plant, though how that could be possible was always beyond us. Also, they seemed in an eternal bond —— the showy clusters of double roses and the quiet and spare blooms of the white flower —— as they spread their fragrance (both were gently scented, the roses like roses but milder, and the white blooms with a whiff of vanilla) across the lawn and into the rooms that opened onto it.

Eye-minded as we are, we’ve chosen a triptych form for this choker to give you that loving couple, substituting the unknown white blossom (it looked much like the regular Juin) with the Arabian jasmine. The three panels refer to the three sides of the little shed that the climbing rose and the Mogori Sambac almost entirely wound themselves around. Joined with three straight rings that have been masked with roundels fitted on them, the parts seamlessly come together on the neck and, as a fringe benefit, make the choker — hitherto of fixed curvature — a distinctly flexible ornament.

The pierced chasing is the virtuoso work of a rather erratic naksha-wallah who, from time to time, forgets that there’s something called time we have to abide by. Often he lets the half-done work rest awhile so that he may return to it refreshed. Then, of course, it slips his mind . . . . You know how that story goes.

Still, his hands are blessed. And, with that, he has the eye to bring alive the imagined or, in this instance, the fondly remembered.

There are distinctions between the two plants but hardly of a nature significant enough to separate them. The frondescence is varied, as are the blooms, naturally. The heavy relief of the central rose stands out : a result of annealing and chasing the motif twice, or thrice even if required. The rope border is also chased and frames the frieze well, the entire work embellished further by the ball-karai beading. Unmissable here are the pearl-and-ball clusters that form a fringe along the bottom edge of the choker. It’s a charming way to complement the mukto-set flowers of the three panels.

Whether or not the actual vines remain, we don’t know. It’s been quite some time since we last visited the hills. They must still be there, just as lovingly interwoven into each other’s very being. We’ve immortalised them in this fascinating jewel which, even when it tends towards the spectacular, remains rooted in romance and beauty. There’s nothing sensational about it ; yet it commands attention in its own quietly stylish way. And timelessness is inherent to the very soul of the jewel —— a virtue it shall bestow upon its wearer as well.

Hand-wrought in pure guinea-gold with the fluent imprecision that’s the hallmark of every cherished work of art, the Mogori Rose Choker, with its aureate flowers and foliage, makes monumental the charming but trivial, and in doing so creates an ornament of great enchantment.

Warring sisters-in-law (wife vs husband’s brother’s wife) we’ve seen aplenty in popular Indian cinema, and the usual pyrotechnics resulting from their inevitable confrontation has been a source of ...

Warring sisters-in-law (wife vs husband’s brother’s wife) we’ve seen aplenty in popular Indian cinema, and the usual pyrotechnics resulting from their inevitable confrontation has been a source of great entertainment for many. Not so here. The Bengali ‘Ja’ against ‘Ja’ jhagda is not even remotely evident among the Senguptas of Guwahati, Assam, but as a matter of fact their conviviality very much is.

They’re first-time customers, both. Having come to know of us from Brinda’s and our Instagram page, they chose us to make for them a 'Guinea' (newly stamped coins, actually) necklace each, and in diametrically opposite styles. The designs were drawn and sent on WhatsApp and their approval came in reply. The jewels were delivered : this one in Calcutta and the other by courier (reaches in a day), because we got late completing it, to Guwahati.

As a fitting riposte to those who might deem the shelly passé comes this classic necklace with five framed faux half-guineas sweetly tied to each other with three chains — a pair of loosely strung brushed-bichhas bracketing a ring-pirich har — forming a perfect festoon.

The open-work frames follow a similar style for the quartet of coins to the sides — a barely convex 'jhanjri'. In the centre, a delicate wire ‘Lakshmi’r Pa’ motif creates a lacy and larger surround for the ‘guinea’ and is further elaborated by wire swirls at the top and bottom, the latter embellished with a chhela-frosted drop while a ‘crown’ is nudged into place by the former. The drops, smaller, are repeated in the sidepieces, but the terminal frames don’t have any because they’re too steep for drops to fall properly from. The shelly form is versatile too, and the necklace can be worn flat around the neck or raised a bit and fitted like a high-collar. Of course, the neckline you’re wearing will determine the ornament’s placement on you but you’ll have to ensure the festoon is laid out generously and doesn't gather together — that would look dreadful.

This jewel was created for Mrs.Ajanta Sengupta, the younger of the two ‘Jas’, who counts writing poetry, reading, taking care of her plants, and loving her dog Jojo among her favourite hobbies. She says : “We chose A.Sirkar for your stunning and quintessentially Bengali designs. The design, and final product, is exactly how you promised, and for that we are grateful.”

Oh, no, no no! — the gratitude must entirely be ours. From Assam – debut purchase – an order without design confirmation – final design approval remote and on phone – a delay – this jewel delivered in-person, in Calcutta, but the other sent to Guwahati : How can we not be grateful for your patience and graciousness. We are, and deeply so. Thank you for vesting your trust in us.

As tradition decrees, this classic yet fresh and novel ‘guinea’ shelly, handcrafted with much care and consideration, has been christened Ajanta after its owner-wearer who will, in time, turn out more its custodian, for the jewel’s future is that of an heirloom, and a very elegant, very rare one at that. Needless to say, Mrs. Ajanta Sengupta shall live on in it forever.

And here’s the other ‘guinea’ necklace made for the elder ‘Ja’ of the Sengupta family of Guwahati, Assam.

Now, there’s something to say here that we didn’t when we showcased the ‘guinea’ shell...

And here’s the other ‘guinea’ necklace made for the elder ‘Ja’ of the Sengupta family of Guwahati, Assam.

Now, there’s something to say here that we didn’t when we showcased the ‘guinea’ shelly earlier this week. The necklaces are being gifted to the two sisters-in-law by the elder’s son whose marriage it is and for which these were crafted. He’s buying — and we specifically use the term ‘buying’, here — the shelly for his Kakima and this necklace to give his mother. This is rare. The norms have always been that parents are responsible for their children’s wedding trousseau, especially the gold jewellery part of it. In a reversal of that custom — and a delightful reversal it is, no doubt — the son of the elder ‘Ja’ Mrs. Jayati Sengupta is the one taking responsibility for adorning his Ma and Kakima with these jewels.

Laid out as five individual plaques — within which the coins are embedded — upon a four-row handwoven v-chain band, the necklace comes as a reprieve from the all-too-familiar floriated style of naksha. Each of the plaques is hand chased in a predominantly lunar pattern of intertwined crescents for the side pieces while the central boss has a remarkable frame of four pairs of buckled-together falcate moons interspersed with stylised fleurs-de-lis. The pierced naksha is exemplary on all, given the constraints of space, and a single fleurs-de-lis hangs as a drop, with a ball-karai replacing the third lily-petal.

Note how the ‘guineas’ — quarters for the sides, and a half-'guinea' for the central plaque — are elevated by the double wire border that repeats itself on the outer edge of each. Not only does this little detail impart definition to the bosses, it also directs the eye to the naksha patterning.

The form of the jewel is derived from our Saptaparni necklace (featured on this page seven Decembers ago) which Mrs. Jayati Sengupta felt suited her perfectly, but the design is entirely different and evolved exclusively for her.

Mrs. Sengupta, a committed homemaker, loves cooking, travelling, gardening, and has a “penchant for collecting watches and perfumes and beautiful jewellery”, the last being the sweetest possible music to our ears. This is what she had to say about her debut purchase from us :

“I chose A Sirkar to order a special set for myself for my son's wedding. I visited A. Sirkar all the way from Assam as I came to know about its classic and unique Bengali jewellery design from Brinda Sirkar's Instagram account. As expected, the charm and service of the store was unmatched and I was able to select and customise a classic guinea necklace for myself and everything was handled impeccably by the store as I live in Guwahati. I'm very happy with the jewellery received and cannot wait to be back again.”

We’re deeply thankful to Mrs. Jayati Sengupta for choosing us and coming all the way down from Assam to order her bespoke jewel. It was indeed a wondrous experience creating for her this unique necklace that we hope will delight her no end and remain in their family forever as an heirloom jewel that not only marks her son’s wedding but also brings her 'paribar' unending peace and happiness in equal measure.

The Sengupta family is held together by bonds greater than those that are evident, tangible, or measurable. Their love for each other shall remain indissoluble (touchwood!) till kingdom come.

We’ve named the goyna ‘Jayati’ after Mrs. Sengupta and in gratitude to her. May this meticulously handcrafted and rather unique jewel win its place in everyone’s heart, just as Mrs.Sengupta has ensconced herself in ours.

"Ami chakri kori London IBM e (tothyo projukti) r UK te thaki amar husband er sathe. Engineering pash korechi . . . Baba'r chakri sutre West Bengal er bibhibnno jaygay ghure ghure boro hoyechhi (Sa...

"Ami chakri kori London IBM e (tothyo projukti) r UK te thaki amar husband er sathe. Engineering pash korechi . . . Baba'r chakri sutre West Bengal er bibhibnno jaygay ghure ghure boro hoyechhi (Santaldih, Kolaghat, Bakreswar, Kolkata) . . . amar hobby holo gaan shona gaan gawa . . . r saaj goj er madhyome nijeke bhalo rakha . . . .

r A Sirkar e ashaa amaar Baba'r haat dhore .. amaar baba pesha goto engineer holeo tini ekjon prokrito shilpi chhilen ebong art er kodor korten. Bangali shonar goyenar eto sundor design apnar dokan chhara kothao nei tai Baba i prothom biyer age amake niye ashe r tarpor thekei amar ekhane goyena kena. Baba ekhon nei r . . . ."

That's what the forthright and truly talented Priyanjana Roy, the owner of this hansuli — and after whom it's been named — had to say about herself and how her relationship with us came about. Completely unaffected by her professional advancement and remarkably down to earth in spite of being a programmer par excellence and one of the few Indian ladies to attain her position at the world-renowned firm where she's instated, Priyanjana is a shining example of a vital segment of the youth of today to whom success without fulfilment, money without meaning, and a life lived without cultural consciousness and aesthetic attributes, is just not acceptable.

Coming to the jewel specially made for her : She'd seen the Grinling Gendaphul Hansuli and adored it but wanted something specifically designed for her that would, in a similar idiom, address her own character, her individuality.

Accordingly, we created this sweetheart form of a generally crescentic jewel, gave it a matar-dana border, hung a decorative fringe of mini ball-jhurs along the lower edge, and attached to it a detachable drop that doubles up as a dainty single rose pendant which again comes with its own beaded frame and a ball-karai ball-jhur drop.

The golap prevails yet again as the main motif, but the articulation of the leafy vine, gravid with rosebuds, draws specifically from Priyanjana's larger-than-life personality.

Witness how from the central flower — a full bloom with layered petals — two curvy shoots wind symmetrically on each side towards the ends, each culminating in identical just-born roses. Along the way, a spontaneous frondescence emanating from the vines makes anthropomorphic the plant so that it seems like it's stretching its arms wide and towards the sky — to touch it, if not clasp it to its heart, and therefore embrace the entire universe. It's a magnanimous gesture, and one that embodies Priyanjana's kind and empathetic nature.

She'd ordered the Maneesha Kanbala sometime in 2019 but was confined to London during the pandemic. Almost two years later, she came to Calcutta and took delivery of the earring and, at the same time, placed the order for this neckpiece. The hansuli, handcrafted in rich yellow guinea-gold using virtuoso pierced-naksha all over, after Priyanjana had ecstatically approved it on personal WhatsApp, was handed over to her mother — with whom it still remains. Priyanjana hasn't since then made a visit to Calcutta and therefore is yet to hold the eponymous goyna in her own hands. The moment she does is when it'll become a family jewel, and remain so for ever.

Let the blossoming roses of 'Priyanjana' bring her peace, happiness and every success, and also the immortality of spirit that only the virtuous deserve.

Distinctly Rajasthani in its form and detailing, this one-of-a-kind necklace is nonetheless as far away from those chunky 'aad' designs as, say, a hansuli is from a pati har.

To start with, it’...

Distinctly Rajasthani in its form and detailing, this one-of-a-kind necklace is nonetheless as far away from those chunky 'aad' designs as, say, a hansuli is from a pati har.

To start with, it’s not a stiff choker even though the central pipe is rather long, ostensibly to ensure the ‘bib’ in front has ample support. Six rows of eight identical sat-karaiphul-studded flat triangles are connected to each other using simple rings. This makes the ‘bib’ flexible and sets the single ball-drop within each void quivering when you wear the necklace so that the effect is of a certain kineticism you’ll have witnessed in the tribal iron wall-hangings of Bastar.

The ornament is strung with bright red thread and, close to the central pendant, uses a combination of pipe rondelles, teota beads and large firoza-encrusted bosses to embolden its ethnic character. The pipe hanger also has the same boss in the middle, with its ball surround and chhela wire flower, only here the set-gem’s changed to a coral.

The last row of triangles on the ‘bib’ is also gem encrusted — with pola, turquoise, and pearls — and then, as closure, sports a neat line of triple-ball clusters.

Note how the supporting rod of the first row of triangles is chiselled to shine : this and the subtle flowers on the bosses are the only places where you’ll see chhela on this necklace. The rest’s all polished in a hardly discernible vermilion tint.

Discal earrings, co-opting the pola-set bosses as pashas, match the necklace, and the drops each are made up of four triangles coming together to form a barfi below which is a single chhela-karai detail. Again, the chiselling is done sparely and the jewel’s glitter is minimized and restricted to the wire overlays and the interspersing four-leaf clover that covers the connecting ring between the boss and the barfi.

There’s this romantic notion of being ethnic in our habit but not in our habits. “Tribal chic” is what it’s called, probably. Anyway, whatever it is, this necklace set is not that at all : it hasn’t tried hard in any way to be chic and there is a certain tribal feel that comes from the arrangement of elements, the stringing, and the nature of detailing, that’s wholly unforced. In fact, it’s the spontaneity of the ornament that gives it a remarkable character and makes miscible the varying virtues of Rajputi jewel-craft and Bastar iron-work. This bestows upon the ornament a primal power and, in the lightness of its guinea-gold workmanship, assures magnificent coverage and a stunning visual effect. More than that, more than the fact that you’ll appear arresting wearing it, the jewel, in brilliant red and gold, also converses in its simple construct and sharp geometrics with your heart and takes it to a deeper sense of the self — a primeval plunge, so to say — by reducing itself from merely a decorative ornament to an elemental one.

We’re all innately simple of nature. Learning and society, and our practice of balancing both, facet us. Experience imparts polish. Even if life were not transient, we’d find it extraordinarily difficult to return to our core. Let this rustic yet rare necklace — at once a confluence of contrasting Indian peoples and cultures, and their divergent art forms — do that for you.

Drawn as much from Lalu Prasad Shaw's Bibi series of paintings as it is from the endearing Pratima Banerjee song 'O Tiya Toré' — where she pleads her escaped parrot to readily agree to be shackled ag...

Drawn as much from Lalu Prasad Shaw's Bibi series of paintings as it is from the endearing Pratima Banerjee song 'O Tiya Toré' — where she pleads her escaped parrot to readily agree to be shackled again, assuring the bird the care it considers its due and further promising it her mind and heart's love towards it — this lithe Sita-har doesn't need you to be lithe but certainly demands an elegance of carriage to go with its understated and unique style.

The central motif is of the truant bird sitting smugly on its decorative arc of a perch that has a moderate jhilimili ball-jhur fringe placed right beneath the prominent single row of topas/mina-flowers.The perch behaves like a swing and is attached to a Manipuri pasha-pakha coupling from which emerge two simple brushed-gote chains that go all the way up to the triangulated terminal ends, interrupted once in the middle by a pasha sidepiece. The bird is hand-chased and is enamelled red on the beak, neckband, and eye while the body is — what else? but parrot green! The vital detail from the song's narrative and that of the painting which depicts Bibi's life as a homemaker is the cage that here is reinterpreted as an open chain-mail half-jhumka ringed at the bottom by ball-jhur and the top of which is a polished ball-bordered cap that sees synonymity with the workmanship of the side-chain couplings.

The Sita-har is a part of our Convertibles range. It's a reversible model that is enamelled on one side and remains the classic earthy-polished gold on the other. Capturing the belle-époque of early twentieth century Bengal and the spirit of Bibi and her pet bird in a meticulously handcrafted guinea-gold necklace and synchronizing that to the melody and lyrics of a beloved song can be a daunting task, and we can't say we've been unequivocally successful in our efforts — that is for you to judge.

True and fine jewel-craft must prevail at the confluence of art and design : seeing the goyna must be as pleasurable as wearing it, and its narrative — whatever it may start out being — must ultimately become your own.

This elegant rara avis of a jewel, which upon wearing will surely help further reveal your inner beauty, must also answer to you, just as Bibi's parrot would have to her, and in the same way the legendary singer's psittacine friend seeks its freedom from its cage which prompts the song as an impassioned entreaty.

Now, Briar Rose was a brave princess and no amount of pleading by the old man at the barely discernible gate flanked on both sides by seemingly unending thorn hedges could dissuade her from wanting to...

Now, Briar Rose was a brave princess and no amount of pleading by the old man at the barely discernible gate flanked on both sides by seemingly unending thorn hedges could dissuade her from wanting to go in. She’d heard, as had many noble young ladies before her, of the castle that lay within and the handsome prince who, cursed by a witch, stayed in deep slumber somewhere inside the ramparts.

Reluctantly, the gatekeeper — aware of all the girls of regal lineage who had ended their lives braving the bramble, for dark magic caused the thorny bushes to wrap any entrant in deadly embrace — turned the key and let her through.

Briar Rose, intrepid as she was in adventure, was rather new to love. She hadn’t ever seen the prince but in her imagination yet felt a strong affinity towards him, as if she’d known him from childhood. She felt an urgent need to be with him, even though none of this would have happened if her brand new Grimmobile hadn’t blown a tyre nearabout the gate and which she’d gotten down to fix. It was then that a whiff of roses so overwhelmed her that she, like iron to magnet, gravitated towards the place. Once in, the thorny shrubs all advanced towards her as if to gherao her and then prick the very life out of her. One of the accursed barbed branches pierced and tore off a bit of her handsome black-velvet dress. Not too soon, not too late, the hour of completion of hundred years of the curse came to pass, and no sooner did the moment arrive than the rough bramble turned to bright and lush flora, and as Briar Rose proceeded towards the castle they made way for her just as the seas had once parted for Moses.

The wild flowers were irresistible to Briar Rose as her entire life she’d been a free spirit, roaming the outdoors as a common peasant would with no cares or airs of a princess. The King let her have her way, so beloved was she to him, especially after having lost his dear wife no more than a year and two moons from the child’s birth. She’d named her daughter Briar Rose for, unlike other children, the baby princess would tumble in nettles unscathed and pick roses by the stem, nary a thorn ever piercing her skin.

Now she picked lilies of the valley, her favourite climbing roses, a large daisy, bunches of wood anemones and a few musk mallows and fashioned from them a collar made of the strip of black velvet torn from her dress when it caught on the first thorns that greeted her. She laid the vines and leaves and flowers upon the cloth. Instantly, they turned pure gold and were presently encrusted with rubies and corals and turquoise and emeralds. Baroque pearls did the lilies of the valley become and some remained as buds of unknown plants.

Hand-engraved and formed in the tol-parh style, the foliage and flowers, together with the vines and collets, became a pleasant frieze that upon her sweet neck made the already beautiful princess even more lovely, a radiant happiness marking her face as she sought the long-lost prince who the world knew as Sleeping Beauty. She found him in the tower, lying on the floor in serene slumber, and she couldn’t help but kiss him, right there and then. As her lips, with a slight tremor, graced his . . .

I sell stolen moons but only of the falcate kind. To start with, it's difficult to pilfer the full moon from the sky without anyone noticing, and then it's even more difficult to offload them because ...

I sell stolen moons but only of the falcate kind. To start with, it's difficult to pilfer the full moon from the sky without anyone noticing, and then it's even more difficult to offload them because they're so uncontrollably luminous. Also, anything between them, except perhaps the exact half-moon, is not of a shape conducive to easy sale. With the sickle-head ones, it's a simple matter of making them into a decorative festoon and putting them up along the base of the hand-chiselled railing of my first-floor verandah. That way, even from a distance, they're clearly visible in all their reflective glory, with the ball clusters added to their beaded edges making them jollier and more fancy.

In the centre, a larger polished crescent rests beneath an even bigger pierced-naksha one, each with a thick frill of ball-jhur, a kadma-drop on the upper moon and a plain ball-karai on the lower calibrating the voids between their curved ends. There's a kadma-drop below the smaller 'chandra' as well to balance things out. Since both of these contrasting magnified crescents (I learned how to enlarge the moons from my late great-uncle who'd developed a ray gun to shrink things and one to restore them to size, the latter being the one I use most, though he left them both to me, I being his favourite first-cousin twice removed) grace the entrance, they're supremely arresting in both their detailing and their arrangement. Those who'd like to shop for falcate moons will not be able to resist the pull of this festive Chandra Toran — they'll want the moon and get it too, or even a whole bushel of them if they'd like.

Whatever you do with the crescents, and there's no formal enchiridion for this — decorate your mantle with them ; keep them tucked under your pillow for your dreams to be pearly-hued ; make jewels, such as may be a choker, out of them to simply adorn yourself with (we've created a sample earring with graduated moons and a cascade of tiny spheres just to show you how lovely moon-jewellery can be) — remember to take care of them well so that their guinea-gold glow may never diminish and so that as natural heirlooms they may remain for generations infinite in your family and cast their gentle and comforting light upon each one of you who becomes their rightful custodian.

If you are to believe Emily Dickinson when she posits, "Forever is composed of nows." — this almost Sita-har length necklace will stand witness to your trust for seldom has the present presented itsel...

If you are to believe Emily Dickinson when she posits, "Forever is composed of nows." — this almost Sita-har length necklace will stand witness to your trust for seldom has the present presented itself in so reserved a manner to secure for itself a future infinite. And since it's a very natural elaboration of the Kudrati Kanbala Necklace from a while go, it's been given a similar name that records its seamless spontaneity — Qudratan.

Created from the classic Naksha Kanbala of a decade ago which an accomplished Bengali bride from Ahmedabad felt ought to be incorporated into her wedding necklace, so enamoured of it was she, this jewel sees that exact kanbala replicated here as the centrepiece. The sidechains are the oft-seen tipki-kamal, here given a double ball border, with decorative bollards lined all along their outer edges. And the single flowers that form the terminal ends are a small stroke of care and consideration : why would they be there if not to 'connect' the Kanbala with the otherwise monastic sidechains.

As for the pendant, what can one say about something that's been seen on the ears of so many? The chasing, articulation of volumes, that touch of pearls, and the perfectly aligned swings all speak of a recherché jewel of great and gracious lineage. The makars too seem animated in conversation, and the merry-go-round jhumka with its drop-pearl clapper almost steals the show from them.

This is a 'now' jewel made for eternity by hand in rich yellow guinea gold imparted a light antique finish. May it prove fortuitous for the young lady and hold its place as a cherished heirloom in her family — now and forever.

This comes straight from the M.B.S. catalogue where, on Page 39, bottom right, you'll see the original version of this which, because of its obround inset piece, was, and still is, known as the Tentul...

This comes straight from the M.B.S. catalogue where, on Page 39, bottom right, you'll see the original version of this which, because of its obround inset piece, was, and still is, known as the Tentulpata Har. Here, in a more avant-garde turn, the tamarind leaflet is replaced by a pronounced, wavy, leaf-like piece that bridges the biccha links and, as was always the case with such atpourey goyna, the chain is hung with a small half-guinea pendant. A regulation 'S' closes the necklace and the staccato orbs do well to broaden the jewel and reinforce it.

"Namaste beheno aur bhaiyo, mein aapka dost Ameen Sayani bol raha hoon . . . ." is how on Radio Ceylon the half-hour Hindi music programme Binaca Geetmala was introduced by its soon-to-be legendary host. That was in the mid-fifties. The show continued for thirty odd years and then transferred to AIR where it ran till sometime in the 1990s. Those with wooden radio sets made in Art Deco designs during pre-independence days would have heard Radio Ceylon on such devices through the decades right till when FM arrived and they became redundant. In sweaty gold-jewellery workshops, at least in Calcutta, the radio was a mandatory fixture. It was on as long as Vividh Bharati stayed live, no matter what was being aired :

“Shushkotar, rukkhotar oboshaan jodi chaan / Baaro maash angey mekhey niin / Surobhito antiseptic cream Boroline . . ."

— Srabanti Majumdar extolling the virtues of an enduring personal care icon before Boroline-er Sansar ; or cricket commentary by the inimitable Sushil Doshi whose ‘Stadium khacha khach bhara hua hai" set the tone for innumerable Test matches and inevitably transported the listener to the venue, so much so that later, with the advent of TV, the radio would often be mounted on the contraption with the TV's volume turned to minimum and the radio's to high so that the camera reportage could be accompanied by Doshi's electrifying live commentary, so dreary were the Doordarshan announcers felt to be ; or even the thrilling Shanibarer Baarbela radio plays that made of almost all Saturday afternoons an unforgettable trip to a dark and macabre world. There were countless more programmes and all of these through all days of the week would pervade the world of karkhanas where many a timeless jewel (Ah! Ratna Sen hosting Timeless Classics every morning immediately leaps to mind) was created to the sound of the radio. The "Awaaz Ki Duniya", as Ameen-saab so eloquently put it, helped inspire generations of artisans to jewel-craft no less memorable and beauteous than those radio shows, though in altogether different ways.

Often the radio would be a '40s Art Deco model, oval, and in polished wood. There must have been sturdiness written into their engineering because they never malfunctioned, despite the heat and fumes and fine metal dust of the workshops. When this har was first made, likely in the fifties, the swarnakars likened the elongated links and the thick wave of an 'S' resting upon them to the radio set and promptly, in artisan argot, named it 'Radio Har'. It stuck. And that's what it's called to this day.

Available in three finishes : rich gold, vermilion tinted, and in gero (earthy) polish , the Radio Har, a stylised bichha-ball chain that you can have with or without the pendant (any pendant, not just a guinea), is what once used to be 'atpourey' goyna and now stands its ground as a classic poshaki har of noble lineage but with a history of the "Awaaz Ki Duniya" inseparably intertwined with its distinct character.

The Radio Har's making today will be just as elegant and unique, though probably energized by digitally-sharpened podcasts. You won't mind that, now will you?

Seems familiar? That’s because you’ve seen this chasing on another set of jewels : The Shuk-Umlakh from March this year.

That’s the beauty of bespoke : when you love a jewel enough to commit to ...

Seems familiar? That’s because you’ve seen this chasing on another set of jewels : The Shuk-Umlakh from March this year.

That’s the beauty of bespoke : when you love a jewel enough to commit to it for its artistic merit but find that the form doesn’t suit you, leave it to us to suggest an adaptation that’ll sit pretty on your neck and provide you the sublime pleasure of wearable art in pure guinea gold.

Five separate ‘magic tree’ panels have been created and hung using flat rings from the rare round v-chain that’s fortified by the sturdy granulated rondelles placed between the naksha plaques. The plaques themselves — of the same naksha as the Shuk-Umlakh neckpiece — have lost the parrots that used to guard them and are instead given a ball-karai border and a thick cluster of ball-jhur across their bottom edge. The latter detail, in the central pendant, moves along its sides as well and so differentiates it from the rest.

The earrings chosen are of the same naksha and have a granulated topa crown with a ruby in the middle of each. Precious stones — coral, turquoise, pearls and rubies — decorate both as gem flowers of the magic tree and the ball clusters are in identical arrangement to the necklace centrepiece.

The sweet lady for whom we made this wanted a necklace but so fell in love with the Shuk-Umlakh choker that we simply had to adapt it to her choice of form. Allow us to say, the effect is spectacular. Gone are the parrot guards (a major departure, that), the ‘Shuk’ part of the earlier jewel, ably replaced by clusters of orbs. That frees up the enchanted garden in a way for other birds of pleasure and those of your imagination to make it their home. Also, the ornament is now more formidable: a five-panelled princess necklace with more than generous coverage.

All in all, it's a triumph for the wearer/owner, this recherché demi parure, even though it’s clearly an adaptation, but also just as clearly an altogether fresh goyna because of the confidence it has in its newness of form and the way in which all its elements cohere, especially through its exclusion and addition of important details.

Sometimes a sequel can match, or even outdo, the original. The Ratna Briksha (the name’s one that was mentioned while narrating the earlier earring and alludes to the magic tree, framed within each panel, that bears gem flowers) must surely belong in that segment, or at least hope to. Still, it's unfair to compare parent with progeny. It could be that while one's glorious the other's sublime. But that's for you to judge.

Another instance of the kind of matchless jewel that can result from reverse customisation where a smaller ornament or accessory is referenced for a necklace or Sita-har or mukut or some such monument...

Another instance of the kind of matchless jewel that can result from reverse customisation where a smaller ornament or accessory is referenced for a necklace or Sita-har or mukut or some such monumental goyna that ends up becoming an instant classic, this svelte neckband started out as the Ashoka pashas which you see here paired with it. Those earrings, as you well know, are identically matched to the Ashoka pendant of December 2020 vintage. More recently, you’ve seen a ‘variation’ of the Ashoka pendant in the Anganpriya half-set. Once again, a further variation (call it the second variation if you will) is ordered by a lady from the U.K. whose express desire it is to wear her new choker and earrings for her son’s Upanayan. But a neckband modelled on a pasha needs skills akin to making a full-length film out of a two-page short story ; and a consultation with Ang Lee could take too long a time ; so we merrily accepted the challenge and went ahead and created this -the Vishoka choker.

Conceived as a frieze of Ashoka flowers on a vine scrolling away on either side from a central eight-petalled blossom that replicates the floral disc atop the original pendant, the choker is at once svelte and highly distinct, its pierced naksha scrollwork a fine example of what Bengal’s authentic jewel-craft really is, especially when it comes to hand-chasing. The flowering vine is hemmed in on its upper and lower edges by a twined rope (that’s part of the single-sheet naksha) and then framed by a double row of carefully arranged half-spheres equally on top and below in a decidedly North-Indian fashion, giving the jewel a wonderfully macaronic character but one of clear sophistication as well. This choker knows what its doing and the effect its wearing will have on its owner, as well as on the sundry viewers all of whose heads it will nolens-volens make turn.

An occasion of great importance for an Indian Bengali mother who resides in England, and to mark it this jewel that bestows upon her the blessing of enduring joy. Our heartfelt gratitude to her for coming to us for her bespoke jewellery and affording us the opportunity to create for her a goyna that we’re certain shall stand the test of time, holding in every leaf and frond and flower within it the symbolic power to protect her from any harm. It’s not a talismanic goyna, this. But in its allusion to blossoms of the sorrow-less tree (again, Vishoka is another name of the Ashok gachh) it evokes, in pure guinea gold imparted our trademark cramoisy polish, the divine in our heart. The Vishoka isn’t any choker ; it’s a jewel that revels in its provenance in mythology but ensures through its meticulously handcrafted pulchritude that we live that mythology in gold.

In classical music the structure of a piece is built upon a theme that usually has a strong central melody which is later varied and repeated and is called a ‘variation’. After the first variation’...

In classical music the structure of a piece is built upon a theme that usually has a strong central melody which is later varied and repeated and is called a ‘variation’. After the first variation’s played, another takes its place but is different from the first variation and the theme as well in some other way. Such repetitions are at the behest of the composer and she/he may choose to have as many variations as may be required to complete the piece. This ‘theme and variation’ aspect of creation holds true for us as well, only that in our case the decision to have variations invariably comes from the customer. 

Consider the ‘Ashoka’ pendant we showcased here in December 2020, and you’ll immediately gather this to be a larger, more elaborate, and richer variation of that jewel.  

The “pierced naksha pasha-pendant of monumental simplicity and vivid imagination where a top-down view of the Ashoka tree results in scrolled leaves and dainty blossoms occupying every part of the curved dome” is perfectly relevant to this discal jewel as well.  

As for the craftsmanship :  in comparison to the original pendant, the beading’s as it is, but the floral disc that fronts the loop is gone, replaced by two no-show rings at the back of the curved dome. The vermilion polish remains, and the tassel as well, though the latter’s now in rare firoza as a tightly wound cotton-thread tube. This may not be to everyone’s liking (the original pendant had cochineal red for its tassel) but it makes for great drama ; and a very regal combination it is too, turquoise and gold. A spattering of rubies, emeralds, pearls and firoza have been added not just for decoration but to enliven the flowers and scrolling foliage that are left to spread themselves over the dome with complete abandonment. 

This time, kanpashas have been made with the pendant, and how elegant and powerful and aristocratic they look, that also at first glance. They can only get more attractive with age. A smaller version of the neckpiece, these recherché pashas are fabulous when worn as a demi-parure with the matched pendant, but when you wear them alone, they’re just as spectacular but more powerful.  

Just as in the Ashoka, the absence of any strong single motif in the pendant is evident. But there’s room now to accommodate more of the anfractuous wild plants and flowers and so the naksha is more elaborate, and exquisite, and tantalizingly palpable. It’s this pierced chasing, intricate and sapid, that raises the jewel to an unequivocal classic and as well an instant heirloom.  

Handcrafted in pure guinea-gold with respect and pleasure and pride and all that one feels when one is birthing a work of art, this first variation – Anganpriya – of the Ashoka pendant, made bespoke for a resident of Dubai, claims its independent stature as a jewel on the basis of its renewed personality. But because its heart remains true to the original, the name chosen for it is simply another name for the Ashoka tree. This pendant-earring set, though, be certain, will make splendiferous any 'angan' of the heart at all times.

Sometime in June, the venerated Cottage Industries held a textile exhibition at the Thyagaraja Hall where only handloom silks and cottons and linen were on display mostly as clothing and related ar...

Sometime in June, the venerated Cottage Industries held a textile exhibition at the Thyagaraja Hall where only handloom silks and cottons and linen were on display mostly as clothing and related articles but also, in a scattered way, as table and bed linen. Individual weavers and state-owned stalls commingled in no particular order and the place of origin of many of the purveyors was not indicated. Still, there were treasures to be found amidst the sleepy chaos of the place; sleepy because there was hardly an audience for such wealth of craft as may need more involvement than jostling through swarms of buyers with a grab-and-go mentality to pick some discounted readymade garment; sleepy because the stall owners were mostly dozing on the synthetic (not coir! — and this was a handloom show) carpet of their cubicles when we went, late afternoon; sleepy because what colour there was came from the fabric — the vendors demonstrating a listlessness so keen that it made them appear wholly etiolated.

Yet, this is precisely where, at a spare stall selling Assam goods, we found an intriguing ‘gamucha’ with the regal ‘Kingkhap’ motif on it, one end with it in the centre flanked by a butterfly-and-paisley pattern, and the other end with the order reversed.

The lady managing the stall, suddenly enlivened by a prospective customer, bade us reject the piece since it had water-stains on it. But the ‘Kingkhap’ had arrested us. Not uncommon or unseen on a ‘gamucha’ (they’re irreplaceable for binding wet hair with) in the basic form, here it was certainly quite unusual because below the paan-shaped badge was suspended a marvellously foliate joonburi pendant that further had four little upturned crescents hanging from it. This jewelled falcate-moon appurtenance clearly connected the ‘gamucha’ to us, related it to our calling, and asked for it to find with us its home. And so it did, and was washed — making the traditional red-on-white pattern bright and winsome — and used, and deliberated upon at length, and finally immortalised in gold. 

We picked a couple of gamuchas in the regular gos buta (tree motif) and ever-popular japi-pepa weave and included the Kingkhap gamucha with them. The stall lady even reduced its price because we were buying a shop-soiled article.

There’s no getting away from the fact that this necklace has come about from an Assamese gamchha (as it’s pronounced in Bengal), respected and revered in that State. In fact, it’s also called Bihuwaan when, during the Bihu festival, it's gifted to elders of the family. 

The Kingkhap motif, popularised by the Ahom dynasty (that ruled Assam for just about six-hundred years) as a symbol of their courage and splendour, is of course to be found on the richest of the State’s textiles such as its pure silks or Muga. The crux of the pattern is in the facing lions that allude to power and bravery, but the surrounding paisleys and foliage and a central tree speak equally of peace and plenty. In the necklace, this has been replicated in what’s called ‘figure’ naksha. The sparring lions have pride of place, naturally, but the flora that encompasses them is rendered with stunning symmetry on either side of the palmate plant in the middle. It’s all in pierced chasing, the heart of the Kingkhap centrepiece, and the surrounding naksha of leaves and fronds celebrates the regal beasts but also grants them a magical world to inhabit. A solid, scrolling flower border frames the scene and is in turn contained by a thick twisted wire that runs the outer perimeter of the emblem. 

Note also how at the top the border turns into a pair of Turkish acanthus leaves with a palm-like flourish between them. This part is crucial because that’s where the loop is placed. 

It’s also a splendiferous pendant, the Kingkhap centrepiece, for it detaches without fuss from the simple kamal-ball sasa-dana pati to function as an independent jewel that can be worn with a flat velvet band as a choker, or with a bound- or loose-thread tassel in high contrast as an ethnic ornament. All three versions look ravishing, the autochthonous ‘Kingkhap’ adapting with noble ease to each and retaining its royal bearing throughout.

The Joonjhulana earrings are matched to this ornament, and complete the humble gamucha’s  truly magnificent pairing of the Joonbiri and Kingkhap.

It’s all a very manly thing, this business of lions confronting each other, and the badge of honour, so to say, that the motif invariably becomes. It is, by provenance, a regal emblem after all. But women (and men) have worn it with pleasure on apparel for years and years, this pattern, often without the customary animals and only as a shape with varying infills. That’s changed forever now. With the guinea-gold Kingkhap necklace, the original lion insignia becomes a singular symbol of the strength of our muliebrity, worn with pride and indubitable fearlessness.

If chronology were to be the only criteria for an understanding of the evolution of art, this Hansuli would be a neat coda to the wonderfully wild Kaan that preceded it. As a matched set, the chasi...

If chronology were to be the only criteria for an understanding of the evolution of art, this Hansuli would be a neat coda to the wonderfully wild Kaan that preceded it. As a matched set, the chasing on both is identical but the blossoms and the scrolling vines and their leaves here are larger, more well-defined, while the few buds and new flowers scattered around are all but smothered by the powerful naksha of the main motifs. This, however, is not only because there’s more space for the greater flora to flourish but a matter of the heart and the soul being out there in the woods picking wild flowers, thinking wild thoughts, imagining a wild freedom with which to live a life of splendid and unencumbered vitality, while the mind festinates us into safety and practicality and hands us a moral compass that veers between propriety and social standing — no more, no less.

We return from the forest with a bunch of the unnamed and unfamiliar flowers that we then proceed to carefully arrange in a manner disciplined and proper and which we feel will be enthusiastically received by the sophisticates and in turn make of us acknowledged sophisticators. Yet there’s rain in the heart, and we know there’s a whole world between approval and opprobrium we can inhabit but don’t due to the common illation that we’re best where we are. 

We aren’t. That’s the whole point. But this caringly and carefully handcrafted Hansuli, the companion piece of which is the Aranyakanak Kaan of last week, shows our bid for the life supreme has begun.

Through the strict form of the necklace and the symmetrical arrangement of the flowers and leaves on their vines, conformity is encountered and then quietly broken in the winged brackets of the crescent that you see at each tapered end. It’s as if the whole frieze were given flight :  a release without direction. And in that one act of transgression (though it’s simply a spontaneous reply to the rigidity of social tradition that, inevitably, isn’t all good) the jewel is turned into a magical vehicle upon which we transport ourselves to the world of our imagination where truth and beauty illuminate every lived moment and is in the very air we breathe. 

The naksha bas-relief is prominent and solid and seems carved rather than chased; ball-work, subtly calibrated, is seen on the upper and lower edges of the hansuli; and that magnificent central flower, rendered in deep reverse-naksha, flaunts its etched petals and their polished borders with confidence that verges on the operatic, the layered effect showcasing tol-parh workmanship at its most remarkable. The firoza-pala-chuni combination prevails along the bacciferous vines and the ruby core of the diva among the varied blossoms shows her regality. 

The Hansuli was made first and the kaan matched to it. You know then that this falcate festoon of wild flowers — with its crucial 'wings' — attentively wrought by hand in pure guinea gold is nothing but "the flowery body of the earth" that's upheld by "time's golden thigh" or rather 'time's golden neck', in this case. It's the way George Chapman explained our rightful use of time. 

And the Bonophul Hansuli indicates we're getting there, and clearly and charmingly alludes to our destiny being that which we deem it be.

Amongst us Indians, the reasons for wearing precious jewellery can broadly be stated to be cultural, symbolic, talismanic, to affirm a social position, or for decoration, or to simply make us feel ...

Amongst us Indians, the reasons for wearing precious jewellery can broadly be stated to be cultural, symbolic, talismanic, to affirm a social position, or for decoration, or to simply make us feel beautiful. The goyna becomes especially meaningful when we imbue it with our feelings and sentiments and invest it with new memories. 

But unlike the way it used to be in the western world, the motive of cherishing memories of a loved one doesn't will us to a piece of fine personal jewellery. With this pendant, that's changed forever.  

We take pride in the fact that we're either the singular author of our ornaments or co-authors with you when we're designing bespoke. The individuality and independence with which we conceive, create and then birth our jewellery we consider a divine blessing. 

But we're not the author of today's jewel or its story. The unassuming but spirited lady whose voice you will hear after this introduction is a first-time customer. This 18K gold pendant set with four brilliant-cut diamonds is of her design that she ordered us to manufacture for her. We are merely the maker of this small but monumental jewel (why monumental, you will know as you read) and as such have minimised and dimmed our name and logo in deference to its coruscating sacredness.  

This is the story of Aru-Soma, in her own words : 

 "Hi, my name is Pallavi Salvi. I am a teacher. I like to read books, listen to music, watch movies/ web series, and travel. 

Last year I lost my beloved husband, Arijit Ghosh, to Covid. He too was a teacher. He left a lucrative corporate career to follow his passion for teaching. 

I wanted to make something which symbolises our love and decided to make a pendant with our names . . . what we fondly used to call each other. He called me SOMA which is short for SOulMAte. I cherish this pendant which gives me hope that one day we will be together again. 

I came to A Sirkar as they are well known for quality and craftsmanship. They were extremely helpful and professional. A big thank you to A Sirkar Jewellers."

I’m changing the narrative a little, this time. 

You know how irate Lakshmi is with this whole business of my going and visiting my Aunt while she was sleeping. She thinks it a sly thing...

I’m changing the narrative a little, this time. 

You know how irate Lakshmi is with this whole business of my going and visiting my Aunt while she was sleeping. She thinks it a sly thing for me to do and ungrateful as well because of the untiring care and attention she lavished upon us when we siblings were unwell. 

I mean, I needed a change after lying around in bed for that amount of time ; and she was sleeping so blissfully! — how could I awaken her. But she’d never see that side of it :  the fact that I didn’t want to disturb her rest after a fortnight of relentless seva. 

Now, I’m carrying sweetmeats and a sari and some jewellery to placate her. And, you know, she did chuck her ‘Moha Churna’(that potent powder laden with camphor and sandalwood and magic) at me and I did send her an ‘Agyan Mala’ when she came here to Gundicha, but she wanted to see me in person and spend time with me and I couldn’t and that got her even more irate and she left in a huff, and on her way out — would you believe it? — she broke off a part of my Nandighosha!, scraped a big chunk out of the pahi of the front wheel, paint and all. 

Anyway, all that’s forgiven. I know how it is with Lakshmi ; she loves me too much yet still can hold a grudge, but hopefully not for long. It’s the one thing that worries me :  What if she’s not easily appeased and doesn’t forgive what she perceives as my outright knavery? Will she even open the door to me and allow me home? Oh Lord! (and, mind you, I’m not appealing to myself here) Save me from the ire of my spouse in these oblique wars that married couples, however loving, always seem to get into.

Don’t laugh at me for this. I’m going to engage in that obscure ritual that a friend from Mohanpur taught me of air-writing three imaginary Bengali ‘B’s on my forehead and then striking them out with three equally imaginary lines before I face her. It’s a ‘totka’ (to neutralise wrath encountered) that’s supposedly never-failing, if there is such a thing. And then, as backup, I do have the rosogolla and sari and goyna. 

Also, I’ve decided to don my finery and appear in my best Suna Besh which could make her see how important I feel her forgiveness is. 

But — and this I’ve thought out fully — in case all this fails to impress upon Lakshmi my honest intentions of making up to her for my surreptitious staycation, and she refuses everything I offer in terms of apology and considers my efforts blatantly bathetic, I have nowhere to turn but to you, my ardent fans and followers (isn’t that what the digital world terms devotees?). 

If locked out of home by my wife, I must resign to my chariot in my Suna Besh and hope for a home close to your heart. Thus I have reduced my Nandighosha, though with all its accoutrements, from its monumental proportions to one that may fit you as ornament. My red Trailokyamohini flies proudly on top of the ‘kalasa’ that’s placed over the ‘potala’ which is clad also in the traditional red and yellow ‘mandani’. The rest of my chariot remains in hues of pure gold. I have dispensed with my quartet of horses ; they’d be too much of a hindrance around  your neck ;  besides, I’m not going anywhere. Still, the wheels of my vehicle move — all of them. Symbolically, I have deconstructed their formal arrangement and also placed them around you so that when you play with any one of them, turning it round and round, it will be akin to turning the wheel of destiny, a power that will always be vested with you. 

I, with my shankha and chakra, and with all my love, reside within. 'Keep me close' is all I ask. And make a home for me in the garbha-griha of your heart. I promise, even if all goes favourably, and Lakshmi relents and permits me entrance, I shall as well remain forever in the home of your heart which I feel to be less encumbered than my own. It is from this new abode of mine that I shall make true : Loka Samasta Sukhinau Bhavantu.

This is rare. And by that we don’t just mean the ornament — which is certainly unique in that it’s a near replica of a museum piece — but also the circumstances of its manufacture.

When a cli...

This is rare. And by that we don’t just mean the ornament — which is certainly unique in that it’s a near replica of a museum piece — but also the circumstances of its manufacture.

When a client asks for a jewel displayed in a museum to be adapted for her, it is indeed an extraordinary request ;  more so because to perfectly recreate an ornament from more than a hundred years ago with complete veracity of workmanship would seem, at least on the face of it, nigh impossible a task, the tools and techniques through time having been lost to reckless industrialization and the artisans who had the skills, tenacity and patience to craft by hand such recherché jewels all but fallen extinct. But we’re in Bengal. And boast the world’s best goldsmiths who also happen to be artists in their own right. Not only that, we have arguably the finest setters and pictorial enamellers as well. Nothing’s beyond us. And we’re up for a challenge any time.

In our ongoing series “Treasures in Museums”, we’d covered in January 2020 the  Museo del Gioiello in Vicenza that touts itself deservingly as "The First Jewellery Museum in Italy" where was held between 2018 and end-2020 a splendid exhibition in which this necklace was displayed in the the themed Symbol Room curated by Pascale Lepeu – Director of the Cartier collection for over 30 years. He selected the items for the Symbol Room where extraordinary jewellery illustrated the vital function of ornaments as enduring symbols of power, wealth, religion, and royalty.

We don’t know about the religion bit but the rest of the three are well in evidence with regard to the esteemed patron who commissioned the necklace. But since it’s not our design and because we weren’t asked to make radical or even innovational changes to the form and detailing of the piece, and because it’s a historic jewel, we can’t name it after her. Our emulous endeavour to recreate the jewel we hope will justify its title. But first, the caption to the actual ornament that’ll help you recognize it :

THE HISTORIC JEWEL

PARURE - GIOIELLERIA MARANGONI

Gioielleria Marangoni di Vicenza
Parure, Vicenza, late 19th century
yellow gold, enamel and turquoises
Private collection

An important and elaborate parure in yellow gold and enamel of the late nineteenth century consisting of a necklace, a brooch, a belt buckle, a pair of pendant earrings and a tiara. All the jewellery is made of yellow gold foil, worked from double hollow sheet, with turquoises and floral-inspired decorations executed in enamel. The degree of conservation is perfect and makes it possible to admire the excellent level of workmanship.

OUR JEWEL 

Recreated in fine cut-work in layers and with stellar engravings, the necklace has  been entirely handcrafted over six months during which time the initial shape-cutouts were discarded and the whole thing re-done. Regarding the enamel, too, we had a choice between the champlevé of the original or to use pictorial mina in the manner of the Battersea or Bilston enamels. We chose the latter as the surface on the plaques to be coloured was limited and we needed the floriated part to show clearly. 

Mildly off-white layers of thick white enamel, like ‘gesso’, form the base on which the painting is done. A transfer of the floral motif is then imprinted on individual surfaces and completed by hand. You’ll notice the variation between each corsage (no two are the same) and this sublime imperfection, much like actual flowers that are never alike,  is only because they’re entirely hand-painted. 

The spattering of turquoise around the plaques and within the interspersing pieces adds colour and richness to the jewel and makes what’s noble regal. Not to be missed is the decorative clasp on the plain bichha back chain. If not that then what could ever give away our manic attention to detail while designing and crafting your fine jewellery.

What else is there to say? If you, as our great patrons, choose us to make what you choose by way of fine gold jewellery, we'd invoke the divine to grant us the skills and the fortitude to accomplish your commission to your satisfaction and, hopefully, delight. 

The genteel lady for whom this was crafted has made known to us her joy and contentment at receiving the necklace. May this painstakingly wrought jewel not only match up to history but, on her, create new and happy history as well. And as the jewel steadies into its foreverness, may she who willed this necklace into being be conscious also of her own immortality in gold — in the purest, most beautiful gold there could ever be. 

There’s nothing here you haven’t seen before and yet it feels new but in a strangely familiar kind of way — like someone you meet whom you know you don’t know but who, it somehow seems, you’ve know...

There’s nothing here you haven’t seen before and yet it feels new but in a strangely familiar kind of way — like someone you meet whom you know you don’t know but who, it somehow seems, you’ve known all along in a manner both intimate and intense.

The Naksha Kanbala, that time-honoured classic, is replicated in exactitude as the centrepiece of this simple but stunning necklace that’s lissome in its construct of the chain part but operatic in the articulation of the naksha kanbala centrepiece with all its bells and whistles and an all-important combination of seed pearls and gold orbs in the trimning that not only offers welcome relief from an only-gold jewel but helps define the pendant as well.

The pasha’s been flattened into a double ball roundel with a reverse naksha flower in the centre, fully detailed, and holding a solitary pearl in its heart.

The tipki-ball kamal chain is the obvious choice for this necklace where the kanbala must necessarily be the centre of attention, but the edging of cones — with their double ball finials and a single barfi embossed on each — introduces a tribal pulse to the ornament and makes it earthy yet sophisticated in its juxtaposition of diametrically varied workmanship that yet cohere with grace and power, both.

It’s a thrilling jewel, this –– reassigning to the familiar a dramatic urgency and making the known unknown and then known again in a vital way, as if such an ornament were an imperative, a must-have. And so perhaps it is.

Handcrafted in three different kinds of workmanship and designed to be in perfect balance through its disparate characteristics, the Kudrati Kanbala Necklace, here in gero-polish, speaks our strength and glory and beauty and earthiness in pure guinea gold and enunciates the kindness inherent to our femininity as the familiar and its primordial power as the unfamiliar, the latter manifesting itself, as it does here, whenever called upon, whenever needed, prayed for, or as we deem fit.

It hasn’t been a week yet since we gave you the Recap post on “Chokers Strung or Set With Pearls” and again we’re presenting one of the same though the ‘sameness’ here is of a different kind. There...

It hasn’t been a week yet since we gave you the Recap post on “Chokers Strung or Set With Pearls” and again we’re presenting one of the same though the ‘sameness’ here is of a different kind. There’s an exigency in this country, you see. Syncretism and secularity, both ingrained in the character of our land, seem to be at stake. But we’re jewellers in the truest sense and can hardly look beyond beauty and history and heritage — all of which we breathe into our jewels while birthing them. There is no scope for protest here, besides that which the agency of our art might allow. But can we be imagineers of such calibre that a jewel, petite and pulchritudinous, might also be a hortatory voice silently conveying through its enduring loveliness the miracle of a unified society where diverse communities commingle in peace and with certitude in a culture that transcends religion? Let the world see. 

Five lines of seed pearls hold in place two crescents, each with an incomplete lotus within it. The choice of beads — to set into the centre of the flowers and also to cohabit with the large and small pearl fringe — is soft green emeralds. The workmanship is cutwork and flattened wire, polished and chhela, and the border of the crescents is of mihi-ball with an additional framing of strung seed pearls — contrasts and contradictions everywhere, but all cohering with ease to form a jewel beauteous and beamish both.            

A solitary oil lamp glowing among the green and white gems becomes monumental in its anonymity — it could be Alladin’s magic light or perhaps one that’s burning bright in a niche carved into a Tulsitala in some remote village of Bengal. Its provenance is of no importance ; what is is the fact that it’s a divine light, and one that reflects the ever-luminous sacredness of the falcate moon and the infinite wisdom of the lotus. 

The terminal pieces are each a scroll to which is attached a crescent with an emerald bindi within it.   

Infer what you will. A profligacy of words in explanation is completely unnecessary. Those who know, know. 

This strong but graceful, dainty but daring, simple but iconic choker crafted by concerned hands in pure guinea gold has been imparted an earthy polish traces of which can be seen on the moon and the petals of the lotus. It’s deliberate. In our stillness we are returned to earth — all of us. All of Us. It’s only fair then that while we live upon it we should do so in perfect harmony and with peace in the presence of each other.   

Hopefully, not far into the future, this little jewel — HilaalKamal — shall become a bellwether for the revival of our collective humanism in what is rapidly becoming a rather sadly Cimmerian age, and also a precious remembrancer of the golden era of our unbreakable communal togetherness. Time will tell.

Sometimes we do too much.   

From the form of this hansuli, you’ll recall easily our Grinling Gendaphul from December, 2018 that’s gone on to become something of a legend. The order...

Sometimes we do too much.   

From the form of this hansuli, you’ll recall easily our Grinling Gendaphul from December, 2018 that’s gone on to become something of a legend. The order was to reproduce one in exactitude, but to size. We didn’t, and we did, respectively.

Let’s see how much of that much-loved jewel remains in this one : 
a)The flowers-and-vine pattern takes the form of a scrolling creeper that occasionally breaks into a thick globular cluster of blossoms.
b)A buli-frosted makar marks each end. 
c) The triangulated wire-work with a ball at each tip goes across the lower arc of the ornament, beneath the ball border.
d) The tiny ball-thokas (with a large polished ball in the centre) travel the entire bottom edge.
e) A row of hollow ball beads edges the jewel.
f) The pierced naksha remains just as exquisite and intricate.

And what did we do extra, thinking we had the creative license to reshape a legend : 
a) Gone are the pot marigolds, replaced here by a superbly rendered society of smooth hydrangeas, their round clusters palpable in relief and each bloom, within the flowerheads, distinct. 
b) In the centre, the large double-blossom is replaced by an arrangement of smaller flowers that seems to rise from a shallow vase or bowl. These are not specifically defined, but if you, without blinking your eyes, look at just the mid-section fixedly for about ten seconds, you’ll notice how they’re carefully arrayed to form an ishkabon- or paan-shape.
c) The foliage is now more defined, the pinnate and parallel venation of the leaves having been made clear to the eye and to the touch, while the way in which those leaves are ordered is more classical than natural as, say, in the border of a heritage saree.
d) Finally, the perforations are certainly more minute and elaborate, the cut-out parts resulting in a delicate jaali.

Created with all good intentions of reflecting the luminous character of its owner, her splendid taste, and as well address her profession of being a designer-purveyor of fine sarees, we made the vital mistake of deriving an iconic jewel from a legendary one, which is fine in general — if the ornament were to be made for the showroom and not against a specific commission — but isn’t justifiable on the grounds of the gap it leaves between the buyer’s wish and our interpretation. As a result what we though would delight, disappointed.

The name of the jewel comes from the central arrangement of little flowers that draws directly from the rare Latifa buti (named after the master weaver who designed it, Latif Mian) of the traditional Benarasi weave. The golden hydrangeas are fantastical, of course, because they’re never ever creepers, scrolling or otherwise. Here, in this magic garden, they’ve become sturdy vines of the kind you’d find on the baroque Beldaar borders on Benarasi sarees. While those are Persian-influenced Mughal patterns of continuously scrolling vines, ours gives it a heady east-west twist with the hydrangeas.

From Grinling Gibbons’s  wondrous wood carvings to the traditional brocade weave of Benaras is a journey between two wholly different worlds, a transition that we felt could be aesthetically achieved with carefully considered changes that incorporated characteristics of the latter while aspiring to “the loose and airy lightness of flowers” so intrinsic to Gibbons’s woodwork. 

But you know, such ingenuity, if it can be called that, may not always bear the desired result because while it does try to rise beyond customer expectations, in attempting to do so it also subverts them to a certain extent.

We should have known our measure.

Anyway, in honour of Latif Mian, whose glorious buti design graces the central panel of the jewel, and the rest of the virtuoso naksha infill provided by the Beldaar hydrangea patterning, we present to you the Latifa-Hydrangea Hansuli.  Made with bare hands working with iron tools a century old, the ornament, here, is finished in vermilion that, if you want, you can change to a natural rich-yellow-, blackish antique-, or gero-polish. 

Compare it if you will to the earlier goyna and let us know if you think this stands, or doesn’t, up to that by your aesthetic standards and whether or not our unwavering quest for truth and beauty is sustained by this design.

Awaiting your judgement, we remain.

A revival of what used to be a popular style thirty years ago, this tubular amulet necklace owes its second birth to Mrs. Gopa Das Gupta who not only ordered it in the given combination of black an...

A revival of what used to be a popular style thirty years ago, this tubular amulet necklace owes its second birth to Mrs. Gopa Das Gupta who not only ordered it in the given combination of black and old ivory but also did that entirely based on a photographic catalogue.

It’s getting rarer by the day, such comebacks, not least because of the paucity of master artisans who’d, at one time, handcraft such a jewel from start to finish and entrust the enamelling to an equally adept mina-artist.

In this recherché necklace, there are three different kinds of workmanship on display : repoussé or thokai — the die-struck cylinders ; katai — the fluted caps that come together as beads ; and ball-work — the edges of the cylinders and the jhur. The enamelling, done in the cloisonné style, is of course an entirely different discipline. Strung together using the now-uncommon v-chain, the three cylinders and four fluted ball rondelles that flank them form the entire central section after which the chain emerges bare and is punctuated by petalled cut-work orbs, again in the same mina combination. The trio of ball clusters on each pipe is rich and fine and, bunched together, adds a certain feel of folksy merriment to the necklace.
That folksy bit can as well be seen in the earrings that happen to be moderately long jhumkas where a lot’s going on in the dangling part. A ridged bi-cone bead starts the drama, after which comes the mina half-pipe that recalls the necklace, and lastly the fluted cap (also repeated in the pasha) with a single-ball fringe that brings to the jewel a coda of jollity in a very willingly ethnic sort of way.

It’s not for everyone, this set, or these kinds of sets. You need to be brave to choose this over a host of naksha icons that are unforgettably beautiful and in the same weight range. This one’s pulchritudinous as well but in a diametrically varied way, relying heavily on the mystical (tubular amulets) and traditional (the classic maduli-rondelle stringing arrangement) to impart a kind of strangely familiar magic to the jewel. That the whole ornament is strung together and not soldered also helps give it a rustic aura.

As for the cloisonné enamelling, if you look carefully you’ll find flecks of vermilion, somewhere a yellowish blotch, and dark pinpoints on the off-white parts. It resembles old ivory. Without the introduction of such imperfections, art can’t come alive, though in an age when ‘aging gracefully’ has given way to injected youth and a whole bevy of anti-ageing treatments, one wonders whether there is any space for such considerations as our elegant mortality and likewise the immortality of our symbolic selves.

This remarkable little jewel — not a new design, but new to this millennium, to this world where artificial intelligence has all but replaced real thought — comes as a lovingly handmade guinea-gold deus ex machina meant to resolve the conundrum of living in the 21st century through hi-tech machines that make life ‘easier’ and give us heavy doses of digital beauty when all the while robbing us of our depth of consideration.
Life was never meant to be easy: it always just needed to be meaningful. Fine jewellery can’t “change the world“ in the way a certain tech titan once claimed those like him could, but it can, with its revelations of truth and beauty, make life on Earth more valuable, meaningful, and aesthetically astute.

We’ve named the jewel Gopa even though it hasn’t been created as a unique goyna for Mrs. Das Gupta because we feel, in choosing this set with its striking vernacular, she has, after three decades of its lying around as just a picture, brought the ornament back to life. We’re well and truly grateful to her for her trust, her taste and her timely custom.

The Juna Mahal choker of early 2018 vintage has seen great patronage. From it was drawn a pair of pashas in August last year. Much has been said about those, and the legend of a crumbling 13th cent...

The Juna Mahal choker of early 2018 vintage has seen great patronage. From it was drawn a pair of pashas in August last year. Much has been said about those, and the legend of a crumbling 13th century desert palace is told yet again by the parakeet partners who, in love for life, have flown from jewel to jewel in the hope of reviving and restoring the magnificence of their home which is none but the Aam-Khass of a hill-fort on the opulent ceiling of which they dwelt.

The pierced floriation of the choker is retained around the love-birds and the medallion almost becomes a shield, a coat of arms of the Royals of Dungarpur. Detailed differently in the flowers and vines, here you'll see the addition of single blossoms, a belpata, and no trace of the marigolds. Between the birds and just above their heads you'll note a solitary bloom that resembles Sheshnag, its five heads prominently displayed in relief. 

Is mythology then being interwoven with the storied history of Southern Rajasthan? Let the pendant answer, for the articulation of the past and present in visual terms, and drawn from a single regal residence, is best left to the residents of that place. The talking parakeets, in romance bound, will tell all from their rich perch framed within a double-beaded halo. As they must have by now to the brave lady who sought to enshrine them as a vermilion-polished guinea-gold jewel drawn from a jewel drawn from a jewel drawn from the ceiling of a jewelled palace in a distant desert town of Rajasthan. Handcrafted with skills quite beyond the superlative, and fitted with a burgundy rope-tassel, this stunning pendant — more accessible than the Juna Mahal choker — forms a perfect set with the pashas. 

All the more reason for you to possess it.

On the night of our marriage I asked of him his umlakh. It wasn’t the silver kind commonly borrowed from bankers and money lenders. This had five beautiful panels in guinea gold, each depicting the...

On the night of our marriage I asked of him his umlakh. It wasn’t the silver kind commonly borrowed from bankers and money lenders. This had five beautiful panels in guinea gold, each depicting the palace garden's magic tree which bore male and female flowers of distinct fragrance through all seasons, every one of them encrusted with a single invaluable gem. Rubies, turquoise, pearls, corals, emeralds decorated the tree perpetually but no one plucked them. Only when the flowers drooped and fell to the ground were the gems collected by the gardener and brought to him to whom I was now sworn for life. The hills of Himachal echoed his name and he was loved by all, but most of all by me whom he had chosen to be his consort.

He’d given me the umlakh without any hesitation; the kindness in his eyes made of the priceless heirloom a precious gift of unquestioning love.

"Keep it. Make of it what you will. From now, the groom's crown becomes the bride’s ornament and a symbol of their unconditional love," he'd said with a conviction borne less out of regal magnanimity than a virtuous besottedness.

The royal parrots with their ruby eyes stand guard over the panels – three for the guluband and two I’ve made earrings out of — that remain resplendent in their pierced naksha floriation. I’ve added tinkling bells as a gather at the bottom of each tablet so that the tintinnabulation as we make love he might hear in the dark and be reassured that his umlakh is my favourite guluband just as my soul is avowedly intertwined with his.

As he caresses my neck, I feel his sweet wine-tinged breath upon mine. It stills for just a moment as his fingers trace the chased magic trees and their gems ever so gently. When a regent’s wedding crown willingly becomes his Queen’s most treasured ornament, court and kingdom both recognise the power of love to be the greatest and without equal.

I hold him in my jewel as he holds me in his heart.

In the brilliant qawwali from Barsaat ki Raat (of 1960) written by Sahir Ludhianvi, as the competition reaches its climactic conclusion, Bharat Bhushan sings :

“Jab jab Krishn ki bansi baaji,...

In the brilliant qawwali from Barsaat ki Raat (of 1960) written by Sahir Ludhianvi, as the competition reaches its climactic conclusion, Bharat Bhushan sings :

“Jab jab Krishn ki bansi baaji,

Nikali Raadhaa saj ke

Jaan ajaan ka dhyaan bhulaa ke,

Lok laaj ko taj ke . . .”

When Krishna played his flute
Radha emerged, dressed up
Forgetting all she was taught
She left the honour of society

Here’s that saaj, the dress Radha wore.

Then, again, from the Amarushataka comes this:

Somehow she

got through the day

anticipating

the hundred pleasures of night.

Her dear one’s returned !

But now it’s time to enter the bedchamber

and relatives

won’t stop their dull conversation.

Mad with desire the girl finally cries

“something bit me”

shakes her skirt wildly

and knocks over

the lamp —

This is that skirt, shaken wildly in pretence. In pretence, mind you, so that she may immerse herself in what her heart desires.

And then there’s the expressive twirl of the flamenco dancer as Mrs.Gopali Chakrabori-Ghosh has so well elucidated. Or the “Chun-Chun” of Mrs. Varsha Desai that recalls, from 1951's Hindi film ‘Humlog’, a toothsome Shyama singing with the incandescent innocence of young love to Balraj Sahni:

“Chhun chhun chhun bajé payal mori,
bajé payal mori
Aaja chorii chorii
aaja chori-chori . . .“

Lata Mangeshkar made the song memorable, the finer nuances of youthful, angelic love captured perfectly and indelibly in that inimitable voice that rises beyond melody to sacredness.

This jewel has transcended any one interpretation, ours, to include within it those of all you who admire, appreciate and applaud it. What started out as Radha’s 'chaahat' and her 'chaniya-choli' that she wore on her trysts with Krishna has now reached beyond Indian culture and mythology and all associative romances therein to a greater world of each of your interpretations. That’s what art’s supposed to be. No-one, least of all the artist, can actually claim to own a piece of art in the entirety of its meaning. It’s art if we think and feel it’s art. And in that manner it must speak to us in ways only we, each of us independently, can determine. Yet, its universal beauty is at the same time upheld without any equivocation.

What else can we say specifically about this necklace?

Just as a banjara skirt might be constructed, this too is a layered jewel, it’s motifs drawn in naksha (the floriated sections), filigree (the rickrack rows), a sudden Manipuri sat-karai segment, and the katai topas and inverted mangoes bookending the piece.

The double row of kadamphul jhumurs, with polished discs in between, edging the jewel, you’ve seen in the earrings, as you have the finial of two large naksha paisleys with a Manipuri pradip in-between, the latter also wedged in the centre of the aam-kalka border at the bottom. Here, a small sun rises between the naksha paisleys, a detail new but necessary.

After all, when the rituals of physical love are over and in the morning when we realise we’ve declared love by submitting our bodies to wanton pleasure, it gives us a sense of completion, as if love in its totality has been affirmed.

The wide faceted half-topa lined double-kamal chain continues the kadam-phul jhumurs and jhilimili drops of the centrepiece because of which the tintinnabulation is louder, more urgent in the necklace.

Be forewarned then, if you intend this to be your wedding jewel, your phool-sajja will probably end up being a rather jinglingly revealing one. And if your family and friends are discreet in their ‘ari-pata’, they’ll be in places ready to disrupt your first night of wedded love. Even tape-recorders (digital ones, or just phones, these days) have been known to be pressed into service.

Anyway, finally, you get to choose your jewel. Whether the Chaahat-Chaniya, modelled — in intricately handcrafted guinea gold imparted a vermilion finish — after the first heroine of celestial love’s garb when she yearned for her lover and united with him, suits you is for you to ponder. You have to feel the jewel and then feel it become you. Only then can you decide.

In the meantime, just love for love’s sake. To reduce true love to mere physical desire is a shame, and to say the motive of perpetuating the species leads to love is horribly reductive. It’s not the results that determine the act : it’s love because this, this and this came about — No! It’s the act that begets new life. And even otherwise, it’s love if you believe it’s love.

On that note, we leave you with the Chahaat-Chaniya and our wishes to see you love and be loved, unconditionally, always.

That the classic can’t be sultry is a sad misconception. Bengali wives in aristocratic homes, at the turn of the century, painting their buttocks with alta as enticement is a case in point. That pe...

That the classic can’t be sultry is a sad misconception. Bengali wives in aristocratic homes, at the turn of the century, painting their buttocks with alta as enticement is a case in point. That petticoats weren’t worn and the cotton of the sarees that was was fine and white helped matters along, though whether those husbands were worth such creative seduction is an altogether different debate.

There’s nothing canonical about the art of jewellery-making. The rules are made by you and us working together as a team. It’s for us to imbue the ornament with virtues you feel it must have to reflect your unique character.

Womanhood doesn’t mean drudgery. It may not also be immersed in merely the decorative. To have agency over our bodies is essential to our muliebrity and erotic expression a right that can elegantly be connoted through personal ornamentation.

The TellaJumiki is a passion-flower vine with sticky bracts that attract and capture insects drawn to its sweet blooms. Even as the flower becomes fruit the bracts remain and make certain lascivious pests are caught and digested with delightful slowness. It’s all there in this stunning pierced-naksha choker where you see the tentacular plant spread its foliage and flowers right through the ball-bordered frieze. The pockmarked split-ball ghungroo fringe makes musicality inseparable from this splendid neckpiece and recalls the mild tinkling of hand-me-down anklets.

The panel is backed by black velvet : another warning that our beauty is not ever meant to be devoured (as against appreciated) by the male eye but is in fact a stealth weapon that’s integral to our very being –– one that we can unleash whenever we like. There's more in this artistic arsenal but not all may be revealed at once.

Hand-wrought with purpose in rich guinea-gold, the TellaJumiki choker is a beautiful tocsin that sends out clear signals of how charming our femininity is, and how deadly in its confrontation with the male gaze that’s turned toxic.

If “The use of time is fate.” — as the English poet-dramatist George Chapman has claimed, we’ve either wasted time or conquered it in creating this jewel, thus sealing our destiny to be grim or glo...

If “The use of time is fate.” — as the English poet-dramatist George Chapman has claimed, we’ve either wasted time or conquered it in creating this jewel, thus sealing our destiny to be grim or glorious.

The necklace’s fate, however, is in your hands. Whether it’s merely a fanciful exercise in jewel-craft or a timelessly regal ornament is for you to decide.

A year and two months in the making, the Sita-har has seen no less than six revisions and one remodelling as well. The elephant, with all its curves and contours, was chased, cut out, frosted, chiselled, and then fitted with pearl anklets and a line of pearl detailing on its headdress. Caparisoned richly, including a head covering and a crown, it’s the very picture of pachydermal pulchritude.

Fate hasn’t been as kind to the Ramnagar Fort, part of which still serves as the official residence of the King of Benaras. Constructed in the characteristically buff Chunar sandstone, the palace complex, on the east bank of the Ganga, lies in disrepair, the neglect of the Archaeological Survey of India evident in every part, inside and out.

The Durbar Hall, designed with acuity to be cool during the searing summers, is now the museum and to appreciate it one has to take in in full detail the architecture and not just the displays. Of course, the Vidya Mandir recreates the royal courts from the era of the monarchy effectively and there are dusty vintage cars (mostly American) and revolvers, guns, jewelled knives and swords and daggers from diverse countries (the armoury’s here) to see, and a rather interesting clock that tells not just the time but maps the stars and phases of the zodiac signs as well — and it works! Dresses, jewellery and furniture, all belonging to the royal family, are on display as are ivory-work and elephant decorations. A monumental elephant crown has been referenced for its superb chased patterns. The floral medallions on it are seen adapted to the forehead ornament and crown of the haathi and in the centre of the square naksha side-pieces of the Sita-har.

The elephant pendant has been drawn from the entrance gateway to the Durbar Hall where a pair in brilliant vegetable colours stands guard, one on each side, fronting fancy fluted pillars. Mounted upon a pedestal that cantilevers over (but actually rests on) two almost-smiling tigers, each elephant comes complete with a mahout perched on it with what seems a fly-whisk in hand and a chain and bell wound around its trunk. These two, we’ve excluded, as also the elaborate tassels affixed to the coverings, and the thick necklace the haathi wears. Also, instead of the cut tusks of the palace pachyderm, we’ve retained short but shapely ones.

This magnificent Durbar Hall portal has two gently curving ogee arches of which the one on the outside has spandrels that sport intricate curved patterns of the kind often seen in Mughal palaces (in fact, the fort does follow an overt Mughal design in its architecture even if not in its layout). These spandrel motifs have been reworked magnificently in the naksha caparison and the side-pieces of the Sita-har while the end terminals, the only part that is made of thokai and polish-pat, refer the geometric carvings on the stone frames that ornament the riverside gateway.

Five strands of seed pearls harness the elephant to your neck in spectacular fashion. Kept in place by simple spacers, the first segment of pearls is dotted with gold ball-beads that carry the splendour of the ‘shonar haathi’ upwards towards the side-pieces but disappear a little after midway because then there’d be too much gold, and grandeur would become gross. Royalty knows reserve.

Our first jewel of 2022, this. And you’re called upon to judge its fate.

While the elephant may well be a sign of regality and good fortune in India, to spend more than a year birthing it may seem improper if not downright indulgent. Still, the Ramnagarer Shonar Haathi, rendered in virtuoso naksha, was extremely difficult to manage — more even than the real ones are — and for a while became quite the proverbial white elephant till we got the pyknic aspect of it right. But there were other struggles, all of which you need not know, for art to be art necessitates them and their eventual overcoming, though the effort should never show in the finished work.

You, our only goddess, are given your immaculately handcrafted guinea-gold vahana. May you seat yourself upon your auspicious shonar haathi, tour the world, and bring peace, happiness and prosperity to it.

Once the safety of us all is ensured, we’ll walk to a corner of the fort and celebrate with an earthen glass each of Shiv Prasad Lassiwala’s ambrosial rabri-topped sweet drink — and a toast raised to the health of destiny.

The key to great bespoke anything is candid conversation. More so in the case of fine gold jewellery, not only for their enduring value but also because of the character you imbue them with over th...

The key to great bespoke anything is candid conversation. More so in the case of fine gold jewellery, not only for their enduring value but also because of the character you imbue them with over the years as you wear them to occasions that become markers of the life you’ve lived with joy and courage and a whole lot of love, the last given and received not always in equal measure but balanced nevertheless. And such an engagement can’t can’t be too difficult between two ladies who hit it off from the get-go.

Mrs. Anuradha Gupta Pradhan lives in Bombay where she’s a busy professional. Not only is she buxom, warm and friendly, with a disarming smile, she’s also frank and forthright and knows precisely what she wants from where. As such, she came to us, on a friend’s recommendation, during Dhanteras and bought a joroa dul. She also wanted a half-set that would match her natural voluptuousness and verve. It had to be a combination of pearls and gold, and instead of a central pendant she said she preferred two brooches on the sides.

Structure and volume was hers ; the rest she left to us.

But, this time, we’re not going to explain the set. It’s not important that we drew from Scandinavian folk art for the floral forms, nor that a Kashmiri carpet at home informed the floriated frieze of the brooches. No, not even the fact that the lotiform brackets of the earrings and that which bookend the naksha panels and also act as the endpieces all allude to ornate victory arches and hold within them a lotus each (that’s evident when the brackets are brought together) to match the symbols of the godly nakshatra, ‘Anuradha’, need be mentioned. Even the deliberate randomness of the pearl and ball strands — you’ll only realise this because we told you — must go unnoticed. What’s important, imperative even, is to know the bright star of a lady whose ornaments these are and after whom they are named. The jewels become her. And then, the jewels become her. You must know her to know the jewels.

Here’s Mrs.Anuradha Gupta Pradhan, introducing herself to you :

“I am a marketing and communications professional with a consulting firm in Mumbai. Although ‘probashi’ by definition, I love Kolkata and feel deeply connected to the City of Joy, making sure I come down every year to be a part of my Barir Pujo and eat all the delicacies that only Kolkata can offer. I am passionate about handlooms and textiles and am always on the look-out to add to my saree collection for every occasion (or even when there isn’t one!). I love celebrating festivals and trying to learn more about traditions and keeping them relevant in today’s times. I also enjoy trying out and cooking different types of dishes.

Dogs play an important part in my life — I have three dogs : two beagles and an Indie — and they get maximum time and attention from me. Concerts and cultural festivals are another of my passions, though thanks to COVID, a live performance has not been possible in many months!

I have always loved traditional Bengali jewelry but wasn’t able to find someone who could design, innovatively and with welcome freshness, such heritage ornament using classic workmanship till I met Brinda . . . and the order was placed! It’s been worth the long wait, given COVID-19 and the lock downs!

My daughter is slowly starting to like jewelry, but I’m not too sure I’ll be willing to part with any — at least not yet!”

We are indeed honoured to have served Anuradha and thank her sincerely for giving us the opportunity to do so, and for her trust and her patience. We wish upon her immortality, and pray she makes beautiful the world around her with her indelible qualities of kindness and empathy. May her celestial loveliness light up the lives of all her loved ones and of those who care about her and who she cares about with all her heart. 

This isn't a tie-up. It isn't some kind of cross promotion either. But we must, at the outset, credit the Oviya Design Studio in Fremont, California, and its founder Meenakshi Satyavolu Rangachary ...

This isn't a tie-up. It isn't some kind of cross promotion either. But we must, at the outset, credit the Oviya Design Studio in Fremont, California, and its founder Meenakshi Satyavolu Rangachary for the genesis of this design. We don't know her, and didn't know of her either till, on Pinterest, a wedding invitation in mottled crimson with nothing on it but a pair of Kalamkari parrots perched on a lotus fell upon our eyes which then remained transfixed on the card for the next minute, so intense were the colours and so mesmerising the motif.

This pendant, realised in a very light ek-pora naksha, takes its form from Ms.Satyavolu Rangachary's card design and the primary elements as well — birds and a flower. All beyond that has been interpreted to our own aesthetic.

Gone are the repetitive pen-lines of Kalamkari and the solid sections differentiated by colour, both ably replaced by intricately chased detailing on the neck, saddle, breast and feathers as well as the natural relief that naksha brings to soft gold, raising the patterns to make them more palpable and thus realistic.

Also, the birds have transformed from parrots to regal peacocks, their wings positioned high, the plumes more sweeping, and with an unmistakable crest on each head. Notice how a solitary pola, cover-set, and with a trefoil crown, fills the gap between the turned napes.

The lotus too has changed into a badge-like sun, its core a coral surrounded by strung seed pearls, and firoza, pala and mukto decorating the six crescentic ray-petals that emanate from it. A single polished globe hangs from the sun and immediately converts the badge into a victory medal.The earrings are but a smaller version of this sun-and-globe decoration. And, not to forget, the crimson of the card is clearly indicated in the rich hue of the thickly twined cotton cord to which the pendant is fastened.

From Calcutta to California is about 12000 kilometres. Will our gratitude reach that far? Social media has, seemingly, reduced physical distances so that we may, whoever and wherever we are in the world, connect to each other. That might have benefits, but metamorphosing from couch potatoes to mouse potatoes shouldn't be counted as one among them. Then, steeped in digitalia, we tend to lose ourselves to our virtual existence : the image replaces the real. Still, we hope our heartfelt 'Thank You', through this all-but-obligatory method of internet communication, will reach her whose wedding card design with the Kalamkari motif on it has so influenced this little pendant set. Thus, as a symbolic gesture of gratitude, we've decided to name it "Oviya" (after her studio) which, we understand, in most of Southern India, connotes a lady of great pulchritude and noble character whose picture every talented artist wants to draw. We've painted ours. 

The Kakoli Necklace of 2014 and Renaissance Sita-Har of 2017 both have variations of the Naksha Kanbala from 2013 as their centrepiece, and the lotiform pashas are included in the ornament too, not me...

The Kakoli Necklace of 2014 and Renaissance Sita-Har of 2017 both have variations of the Naksha Kanbala from 2013 as their centrepiece, and the lotiform pashas are included in the ornament too, not merely as a feature but as an essential characteristic –– motifs intrinsic to the design.

What’s been attempted here, however, is beyond brave –– there isn’t just the solitary full-scale Naksha Kanbala in the centre but two smaller ones as well to the sides.

Note how the floriated chasing and makar-mukh are rendered in minute detail in the smaller side pieces –– a calibration of the naksha technique that needs not just a draughtsman’s vision but also the deft working of the chasing instruments that only a seasoned hand, in practice over decades, can achieve.

Once the triumvirate of kanbalas with their wire-ball starburst edging and pearl drops (the central one sporting mixed jhur and a polished half-jhumka) are in place, the rest of the structure takes on a festoon or shelly form with the openwork ogee-arch endpieces connecting to the sidepieces as in a Sita-Har.

What connects them are plain-ball and pearl-ball chains strung mangal-sutra-style, and alternated intriguingly –– making the necklace airy and light without compromising one bit on its aesthetic virtues.

This is the last ornament we’ll be showcasing till we resume regular posts after Lakshmi Puja and, fittingly, it seems one of divine provenance. Knowing how from the ocean Ma Durga received a pearl necklace, lotus garland and also a blossoming padma, amongst various other goyna, this Shelly-Sita-Har appears to be the very jewel that adorned her as she came into this world, the three kanbalas constituting the Trinayani with splendid grace.

In truth, we women are each a hardened battle queen. We all modulate the universe around us: juggling our work, family, friends, hobbies, thoughts and prayers to the best of our capabilities so that the purpose of our lives is fulfilled in a manner no less palmary than the Devi’s brave achievements.

We deserve to celebrate our muliebrity in terms both precious and permanent, and kantha bhushan as meaningful as this, which denotes our very being with all its intricacy, beauty and energy, tells our story — the story of womanhood — in meticulously handcrafted pure guinea-gold with a power and pulchritude all its own.

It’s not only the Pujas when we must acknowledge the Goddess within us. She is us as we are Her, every day.

For more than two years Ms.Vidita Menon's been working as an Audit and Assurance Analyst for Deloitte USI. A post-graduate in Marketing Management from the Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Gh...

For more than two years Ms.Vidita Menon's been working as an Audit and Assurance Analyst for Deloitte USI. A post-graduate in Marketing Management from the Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Ghaziabad where she was felicitated with the coveted Beta Gamma Sigma (an International Honor Society) membership during her course for being a top performer in the country, Vidita, with her G.D.Birla schooling and St.Xavier's, Kolkata, honours degree in statistics is an academic powerhouse. But that's just the start : she's also been a Company Sergeant Major (CSM) in the National Cadet Corps (NCC) and represented her state in national events. The NCC taught her to be her unique self and she believes that’s what triggered her love for customised pieces of adornment that would be unique to her.

Apart from collecting academic accolades,Vidita also holds professional degrees in classical dance and music. She's trained in Bharatnatyam and Kathak, and in Indian classical music (vocal) and RabindraSangeet. It just so happens that dancing and singing are also her favourite hobbies.

And while that might have been more than enough accomplishments for most, Vidita does more, this time in ways fully altruistic. When she's not working or performing, she devotes her time to NGOs like The Smile Foundation, HelpAge India Foundation and certain other similar institutions in order to be able to help those she feels are less fortunate.

Her association with the performing arts, from when she was very young, has always driven her to look at most things through the lens of creativity. She loves exploring different craftsmanship styles across India and admires deeply the inherent talents of our Karigars.

In her own words, "I have great respect and admiration for jewellers who create hand-made customized pieces. I wanted something that was created “just for me” for my special day. Hence, after doing a lot of research, I came to you as I absolutely fell in love with your designs and the fact that you handcraft every single piece. I came across the A. Sirkar website when I was searching through all the gold jewellers of West Bengal and I instantly knew that I wanted to get my wedding jewellery made from you!

And you’ve definitely exceeded expectations!"

Well, what can we say but that for someone as young, as illustrious, and as individualistic as Vidita, she has also the deeper sentiments and searching heart of a true lover of the arts. We're deeply thankful to her for choosing us from a pantheon of jewellers in this State for whom our this single-store brand is no match at all in terms of commerce, the yardstick by which every business house must be judged. Situated for over sixty-five years in the same premises, we've remained merely dreamers and imagineers tasked with making your fantasies in gold come true, the slow and considered way. It's why we could conceive of this necklace for Vidita, built as it is upon the premise of her identity as a young lady of great and many virtues, not least of which is the fact that she's a fiercely independent spirit, given to achieving on every level what she sets as life goals for herself.

Fittingly, and in keeping with tradition, this necklace is named after her.

She, by her choice, is the Dandelion (from a necklace we showcased here exactly five years ago) in the centre around which we've drawn a halo of sacred katai-rudrakshas. Three strands of kamal-chains hold this shrine in place, each decorated with seed-pearl- and split-ball jhurs that make of them a happy festoon. A polished half-jhumka stands in for the holy temple bell and has a large drop-pearl for a clapper, while that thick fringe of ball-and-pearl jhumjhumis embellishes the shrine and enhances its aura.

Suspended from a topa-kamal chain that has three pearl-fitted bosses on it, each with fine granulation on them and a surround of katai-rudrakshas, this festoon-and-halo section is fixed to the studs but can as easily be detached to form a separate necklace. Needless to say, the upper part can also be worn as a pati-har, close to the neck. You'll never guess the jewel's versatility from seeing it, so well are the fitments integrated into the grand design and in such exquisite detail the workmanship thought out.

Handcrafted with acuity and ingenuity, both, the necklace reflects the richness of our culture in the decorative arts and also the grace, elegance and coruscating intelligence of its owner. We admit, this jewel — unique of form, design, and detail — is a monograph in pure guinea-gold of a rara-avis of a young lady whose true beauty, beyond that which meets the eye, lies in her strength of character and the qualities she exemplifies as a dynamic young leader, the kind in whose hands we can willingly and with pleasure hand over the future of our planet.

A doctor is a caring person, the nature of the profession deems that to be unequivocal in the practice of it. But when you have a doctor who's a RabindraSangeet singer (trained by none other than P...

A doctor is a caring person, the nature of the profession deems that to be unequivocal in the practice of it. But when you have a doctor who's a RabindraSangeet singer (trained by none other than Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty), who has her own much appreciated YouTube channel, is a popular lifestyle blogger, dabbles in interior decoration with great success, and is working on the frontlines fighting the pandemic, nurturing innumerable patients back to health at the Shambhu Nath Pandit Hospital in Calcutta, you don't have just a caring person, you have an extraordinary medical practitioner and a rara avis amongst human beings. And when she happens to be a young girl in her early twenties, you know that the future is in secure hands, and that no pestilence will ever defeat the human spirit when the spirit shines as strong and bright as Kinkinee's.

Kinkinee's getting married. This is the wedding Sita-har we've been honoured to design and hand-craft for her in rich yellow guinea-gold. Knowing her love for travelling, and that she's all set to go abroad to further her studies in general medicine, and how brave she is, and how completely selfless, and that she has within her a happy-go-lucky soul, we drew up a full moon cradled within a falcate moon, the latter left a simple polished surface fringed with ridged split-ball clusters that echo the musicality of her name. The graduated decorative tassels that hang from it have medallions in different shapes –– square, round, oval, semi-circle –– each containing an auspicious motif such as a palmette, butterfly, chandrapuli, and the night jasmine.These too have their own split-ball fringes, with the chandrapuli sporting a large polished ball amidst the jhumjhumis that alludes to the Frog Prince fairy tale ; but you don't have to know that, it's a sort of designer's secret.

The purna chandra is a layered shield with a pierced naksha shiuli ensconced within a lotus right in the centre. Ringed by two rows of katai hearts (one with a chhela wire heart on each heart and the other with triangular granulation on them), one each of Jaipuri thokai four-leaf clover and mihi-dana, and a final surround of pockmarked topas, the full moon is at once intricate, splendiferous and monumental, seizing the eye into examining the details and dazzling it into submission as well. Also, it stands in stunning contrast to the glowing crescent moon that so lovingly cradles it.

The side-chains too are calibrated to perfection, the kamal-ball-karai central biccha guarded by two plain sikal chains, all three stretched between facing chandrapulis with an oval medallion in the middle that has a perfo-naksha lotus with a butterfly in its heart and repeated motifs from the purna chandra as the layers surrounding this quintessential biye'r symbol. The voids between the chains are of paramount importance here.They not only allow the Sita-har to breathe (instead of becoming 'jabarjong' with overdone infill) but also allocate visual space to the justifiably arresting centrepiece and sidepieces.

It all comes together spectacularly, doesn't it, and makes the phases of the moon intrinsic to human life itself, specially for Kinkinee for whom the ebb and tide of life, the waxing and waning of the corporeal self, is a daily battle to fight and win, and whose sworn purpose is to save as many human lives as possible by renewing the weary, revitalizing the feeble, curing the infirm, and nurturing back to health all those who've given up on themselves.

And then there's the music of the split-ball jhumurs that adds a happy tone to the jewel whenever it's worn and replicates with a pleasing tinkle the name of the lady it belongs to : Kinkinee. May her walk of life lead to glory for her, and all the happiness there is in this world for those of such remarkable calibre and heroic spirit.

Iznik ceramics inform this stunning choker where in the traditional square centrepiece we see the local innovation of a fish-scale pattern (referencing the sea) rise up from the two ends and meet i...

Iznik ceramics inform this stunning choker where in the traditional square centrepiece we see the local innovation of a fish-scale pattern (referencing the sea) rise up from the two ends and meet in the middle. Within each scale is a budding narcissus, the full flower of which embellishes each of the oval spacers where the Nargisa is held within a cloud made of joined crescents. The end panel too has two crescentic trios facing each other.

Realised in deft openwork naksha and framed elegantly with diamond-cut topas, the choker gains enormously from its rare emerald-green faceted-glass-bead stringing. Not only does the rich colour offset the gold to dazzling effect, it's also respectful of history seeing as to how favoured the shade was by the Sultans of Ottoman Turkey.

In the last row of stringing you’ll find, interspersed with the beads, little ball clusters. These add a bit of carefree quirk to the jewel and also welcome relief from five rows of solid green.

You’ll wonder why our narcissus has eight tepals when the normal’s six. Well, it’s a sort of artistic license taken to transmogrify the flower into the Najmat-al-Quds –– the eight-pointed star that’s been seen from ancient times on great architecture and various heritage art and craft. As for the narcissus, you’ve witnessed, of course, its ubiquity in the meadows of Kashmir, as you must know of its significance in Turkish erotic poetry.

What's life without love? And what’s love if not etched forever in pure guinea-gold.

Here’s love, then, as a choker handcrafted with care in pierced naksha to evoke the passions within the walls of the New Palace in Istanbul from where the sea and the sky always seem to merge and where you, as Nargisa, charge the air with your beauty, ethereal and everlasting, and fragrance it with your indubitable nobility.

A bicycle chain is hardly an inspirational object, unless used as a weapon –– a lash or whip –– by those who deem it be so because they find a certain delight in the machine...

A bicycle chain is hardly an inspirational object, unless used as a weapon –– a lash or whip –– by those who deem it be so because they find a certain delight in the machine-shop kind of violence, never mind who it’s unleashed upon. It’s also “a segmented chain composed of tightly joined links arranged such that they can only flex along a single axis of rotation.”

If you turn to page 26 and page 38 of the original M.B.Sirkar catalogue you’ll find, respectively, a cheek and a Projapati necklace that both have chains very similar to the quoted definition of a cycle chain. It seems then –– since it’s a book almost eighty years old –– that jewellers, or at least one jeweller, also found it inspiring and actually created an ornament that replicates the form and design of the cycle chain but chooses to be different in its details and its function, of course.

Our chain differs from the original by being a four-sided affair –– giving it a rounded form and making it supremely flexible –– that uses star-punched ‘S’ pieces instead of the regular chaktis or discs. This makes the har look better (it doesn’t flip over like some flat chains do), feel better, fall better, and behave better (no pulled threads!).

But ours is not an original either. We’ve revived it from a family heirloom : a short necklace with an exquisitely engraved hexagonal clasp that's retained its shape and polish in a way that makes it look as if it were made yesterday.

The process of revival is painful but rewarding. The die for the star-punched ‘S’ pieces was made and rejected four times : either the curvature wasn’t right, or it was too thick in the middle, or too sharp at the two tapered points. We rejoiced with the artisan over tea and galpo when the fifth turned out just right. A bigger celebration is in the offing once things begin to correct themselves. The flat, ribbed die for the inner rings that actually string the chain was more straightforward, though even in that one the barrel effect took time to perfect –– it had to be moulded with a very light touch to get the curved sides right.

Once the two dies were approved, the chain was as good as done, the artisan being an old hand who’s a specialist in tricky hars, having done almost all the challenging chains over the last four decades.

The ornament, as you see it, is an exclusive commission for an esteemed patron who lives in Dubai. She has the eye for classic fine jewellery and each that she has acquired is nothing less than legendary and, for sure, will go onto become treasured heirlooms.

The cycle chain, whatever its antecedents, is a splendid jewel now. And it’s made in a different dimension, literally. The delicacy with which it has to be strung is a combination of dexterity and practice on the part of the artisan and we have just the right hands who’d do justice to an ornament such as this : one that's of simple origin, noble heritage and eminent character. It’s the perfect jewel to end this awful year with : a cycle chain of gold lashing it or whipping it to a close.

Also, in an age of loud and flashy name-upfront branding posing as premium merchandise, this har is a quietly regal, handmade guinea-gold jewel, the only kind we know how to do.

Only those who believe in and feel the need for inconspicuous luxury and unspoken class will realise the nobility of the cycle chain.

In the wake of India's 74th Independence Day celebrations comes this jewel which, in the spirit of that momentous day, carries upon its robust frame the onus of expressing a freedom that has more t...

In the wake of India's 74th Independence Day celebrations comes this jewel which, in the spirit of that momentous day, carries upon its robust frame the onus of expressing a freedom that has more to with the self and society than with the entirety of the nation and its geopolitical engagement and realpolitik relationship with the world.

In Bengal, there's a popular saying : "Baro Mashe Tero Parbon", meaning there are more festivals than months in any given year or, simply, that in Bengal it's festivities all the time. Not this year. We started off with Poila Baisakh behind closed doors, the country under curfew.Then onwards, it's been continual stoppages and restrictions, and no one's visiting anyone, not even home to home. What possible occasion can be marked socially and which celebrations held with the irreplaceable joy of togetherness? For now, nothing's clear, no real direction has emerged, and we remain as we are, separated and secluded for the sake of the better good of the greater world, and rightly so. Still, we need hope of a return to normalcy and ask upstairs to remedy the state of things as they are now and make a wish to that effect and pledge it in gold to our one and only deity –– You. This necklace of the Thirteen Feasts is that pledge.

A cascade choker with thirteen graduated gote chain strings, each with a lucky clover on them, sees this spectacular guinea gold waterfall culminate in alternating pearl and gold globes, the latter a medley of disco and mesh spheres to reflect, respectively, the aspect of raves and acts of stunning daredevilry.

Tied to each other (so that requisite distance is maintained and they don't get entangled –– sound familiar?) with a certain abandon using gold wires and emerald, ruby and pearl beads, the strings are fastened at the top to a continuous series of bosses imprinted with thirteen six-petalled flowers. All of this is fixed to a thick band with a frieze of square plates mounted with ziggurats, turned corner to corner, in the centre, framed by chhela double-kamal chains. The triangulated endpieces feature chhela wire outlines and sat-karai phuls in each.

This ravishing handcrafted cheekh in antique polished guinea gold is an uncomplicated allegory of hope for deliverance from the pestilence that's causing such untold suffering the world over and one that's clear in its statement of freedom, indicating through its thirteen floral tributes and thirteen strands of cascading chains and thirteen culminating globes that the Tero Parbon is very much on –– in the secure, safe and salubrious sanctuary of our hearts.

Wherever we may be in this country or in the world, nothing can keep us apart. The spirit soars, the soul takes flight, and the heart becomes a planet of our own creation where dwell all those who we hold close and near and dear.

The loved one can never be kept at a distance.

On 5 August 2019, the President of India scrapped Article 370 of the Indian Constitution that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir. This means the state’s separate Constitution stands abrogated, i...

On 5 August 2019, the President of India scrapped Article 370 of the Indian Constitution that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir. This means the state’s separate Constitution stands abrogated, including the privileges allowed under Article 35A. Also, the state’s now going to be divided into two Union Territories : Jammu & Kashmir, and Ladakh. That’s as much about politics as we’ll speak of.

What’s interesting, though, is the history of Ladakh which, in the 10th century, was a part of western Tibet’s Guge empire and became an independent region only after that empire fragmented and one of the Guge king’s sons, Pal-gyi-gon, became Ladakh’s first monarch. Kashmir then used to be predominantly Hindu and, astonishingly, it was a Ladakhi Buddhist prince who paved the way for the Valley’s conversion to Islam.

This prince, called Rinchen, wanted out to Kashmir in 1320 after a spat with his father but found the state to be in tatters after the plunder of a savage Mongol invasion, the king having fled and the beleaguered chief minister looking to him for help in restoring peace and order. Rinchen took the sweeter path to stardom by having the chief minister murdered and then promptly marrying his daughter to become king, after which he expressed his wish to convert to Hinduism (the then court religion of Kashmir) only to be flatly refused by the orthodox Brahmins. Needless to say, he embraced Islam, which had no such hang-ups, and Rinchen Shah was born.

In the meantime, in Ladakh, Rinchen’s father and his descendants ruled without any great trouble until 1834 when Jammu’s Dogra general, Zorawar Singh, occupied Ladakh with ten thousand men and negotiated a Rs.15000/= ‘tribute’ to be paid to him by the Ladakhi king. The queen, however, stood her ground and negated the terms. Affronted, Zorawar marched into Leh, setting afire the nine-story palace that overlooks the town. It was this conquest because of which Ladakh became a part of the kingdom of Jammu & Kashmir, and, of course, later on, India.

Ladakhis have traditionally not been fond of being a part of Jammu & Kashmir. Everything, from their geography to culture, leans more towards Tibet and the people, primarily Buddhists, are peace-loving, having nothing to do with the secessionist movement in Kashmir though they’ve always wanted to turn their land into a Union territory, independently administrated by the Government of India. This long-standing demand of the Ladakhi people and their local representatives has now become reality, or is set to on the 31st of October, 2019.

To celebrate this momentous event, we give you, from our side, a humble token in gold : a Gahu pendant with turquoise and pearls and rubies embedded in it. The naksha-work closely resembles the repoussé designs you see on traditional Ladakhi jewellery and the patterns are those from their remarkable filigree infills. The shape of the pendant and kanbalas is a softly rounded half-moon and reflects the popular form of earrings worn by Balti (an Indo-Aryan tribe of Western Ladakh that was converted to Shiite Islam from Buddhism in the 16th century) women, though the pendulous bells of the original are replaced by a mukto-firoza jhur in our version. Also, we’ve used rubies but, to be honest, corals would be a closer and better match (with the pearls and turquoise) to the region’s culture of personal decoration. The Gahu lockets are charmboxes, actually. Here, they haven’t been given a chamber behind the frontispiece in order to keep the gold weight manageable. While they’re strung with gem beads in the region, we’ve chosen a twisted thread in imperial red as a tassel for our pendant-set. The result is as striking, and the ornaments at once become a salutation to history and a celebration of social and cultural freedom as they assume the role of icons of independence and identity of the ethnic peoples of and within India.

Here’s the new Ladakh for you as a treasurable guinea-gold demi-parure with her every splendour of old encapsulated in its quintessentially Bengali craftsmanship. Wear it to know the power of intrinsic freedom — one that’s desired and demanded and gotten with non-violence and patience : as a child who learns to walk and relishes the independence, all the while knowing her Mother’s there to guide her, watch over her, and always keep her safe.

To Ladakh, our prayers for peace and prosperity, till kingdom come.

Five different kinds of virtuoso workmanship. A necklace in three sections held together with hundreds of bichha chains. A form taken beyond the usual by its deconstruction and final reassemblage i...

Five different kinds of virtuoso workmanship. A necklace in three sections held together with hundreds of bichha chains. A form taken beyond the usual by its deconstruction and final reassemblage into one cogent narrative. The volume, made light, despite its staggering mass, by the judicious use of pierced naksha and filigree for infill and chain sections as structure. A finely graded vermilion polish with parts left natural. Eight months of manufacture, bringing the best of Bengal's artisans, with their varied skills, together in one endeavour. Reasonable overshooting of the budget. Five fittings, given to perfect the contours and coverage of the goyna so that it performs consummately in actual use. A very noble and patient client.

So much can be said about this ornament, and there's a lot we'd like to. Simpler jewels have commanded greater words. But this isn't a novel ; it's cinema. There's a black screen there and a story's unfolding against it. You are in your favourite place of rest and about to free your mind to be held captive by what you see. The experience, as the narrative unfolds and the minutiae of the place, the landscape, the time, the characters all coalesce and immerse you into their world, is of feelings stirred up by what you view and note and hear all together in a way that you've interpreted for yourself without knowing. It's then that your mind shall give in to your heart and your heart to your soul. That's when it'll cease to be cinema and become your story. Your own love story. And you'll live happily ever after.

Handcrafted with unerring love in pure guinea gold, and created by shameless fantasts, we present :

Subhasree. A star. A wedding necklace from Bengal. A story of love told in many languages across the country, but none as classically, as intricately, and as beautifully as ours.

The fragrant flowers of the cork-tree bloom during fall and carpet the ground with tiny little stars. Spiritually significant as a symbol of transformation, we gather these four-petalled blossoms a...

The fragrant flowers of the cork-tree bloom during fall and carpet the ground with tiny little stars. Spiritually significant as a symbol of transformation, we gather these four-petalled blossoms and cast them in gold, weaving them together in a golden net that itself transforms into a rare necklace embellished with large floral medallions on a flat mesh chain. The pearl and emerald jhur references the leaves and flowers and effectively frames the ornament.

With matched two-step half-jhumkas, all meticulously handcrafted in red clay finished 22K gold.

Just as the Kakoli Necklace (shown here on 22nd November, 2014) is a fine and suitably complex example of reverse customization, so is this, though the resulting ornament is far, far different. Her...

Just as the Kakoli Necklace (shown here on 22nd November, 2014) is a fine and suitably complex example of reverse customization, so is this, though the resulting ornament is far, far different. Here, too, the Naksha Kanbala (posted on 9th July, 2013) becomes the basis for the flowers-and-vine pattern of the Hansuli though what in the earring was a simple panel of single phul-lata-pata, in this jewel has morphed into a lush, scrolling creeper that occasionally breaks into graduated double blossoms. Note, right at the end, towards the pair of makars, a solitary six-petalled flower proudly holds its place on each side. The mise en scene is evident: those tiny blossoms are drawn directly from the Kanbala to acknowledge the influence of that jewel on this one. Even the triangulated wire-work with a ball at each tip that goes across the lower arc of the ornament beneath the ball border is lifted in toto from the earring and is supremely effective as a counterpoint to the powerful, pierced naksha. The tiny ball-thokas, with a polished ball in the centre, go up the entire bottom edge and a row of hollow ball beads frame the top. The red of the rope tassel dazzles in contrast to the gold and is the preferred auspicious colour, signifying fertility and prosperity.

 

The pot marigold gets its due. Re-imagining these everyday flowers on a vine, the double blooms, in carefully sculpted bas-relief, stand out among the rich foliage. The pierced naksha is exquisite; seasoned hands have been at work here or else the shaping of the leaves, curly stems and two-tiered genda-phul, all carved out from one solid sheet of gold, would never have been achieved to such a degree of intricacy.

 

This is, in a way, masterpiece work, and may or may not be comparable to that of the famous carver Grinling Gibbons whose wondrous wood cascades and wreaths you'll find in St. Paul's Cathedral, Hampton Court, and Blenheim Palace, though those who haven't seen the Carved Room at Petworth House in Sussex haven't really seen him at all. We aren't nearly anywhere close to giving to gold "the loose and airy lightness of flowers" that Gibbons bestowed upon his woodwork, but can aspire to pay homage to him by chasing the yellow metal in a manner so painstaking and with such attention to detail and volume that it would take months to complete a piece such as this, worked upon with perseverance and very steady and caring hands (not to mention the magic skills they've honed from years of tough apprenticeship) that if slip at any point in the making of the ornament would cause it to be melted down and wrought right from the beginning, again. Such is a purist's commitment to excellence; a humble jeweller's quest for truth and beauty.

 

For you, a Hansuli not monumental in scale but by style and temperament, design and detail, in its intent and making. The motif, the form, as the craftsmanship, is essentially steeped in the vernacular of Bengal, and India, while it pays its respects to a legendary English 'Master Carver'. Handmade in bright yellow 22K gold with love, love and the kind of love that makes love immortal.

We've known Mrs.Debarati Dutta-Cherukuri for three years now. Facebook brought us together. Or rather, our ornaments on Facebook did. Since then, we've had the occasion to make bespoke jewels for h...

We've known Mrs.Debarati Dutta-Cherukuri for three years now. Facebook brought us together. Or rather, our ornaments on Facebook did. Since then, we've had the occasion to make bespoke jewels for her several times, but this recherché joroa necklace and earring set is the one that we felt deserved pride of place among those she'd ordered. But first, before we go into the details of the jewellery, here's the very accomplished, very beautiful, very humble, and very artistically inclined Debarati telling you about herself.

 

"An educator, a life-long learner, a traveller, and a diehard dreamer, much of my professional and personal life is built across homes, hotels, and workplaces in several cities, countries, and continents.

 

The consequence of my own mobility as an immigrant (who lives and works in communities distant from her "first home") and a scholar (whose education and work happens in many places) is a subtle and unexpected resistance to it. In fact, much of my present intellectual work focuses on a place-based model of teaching and learning that honors local history, community, culture and privileges indigenous and postcolonial modes of knowledge-making.

 

At the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, I teach courses on critical thinking and communication, academic writing and inquiry, food studies, film studies, and teacher/tutor education.

 

Working with students, reading, writing, cooking, walking, traveling, and gardening bring me lasting joy and peace.

 

A self-proclaimed hoarder, I have, managed to gain notoriety for my blind love for all things local, handmade, and slowcrafted: seasonal cuisine, embroidered linens, handloom textiles, pottery, ethnographic objects, and (drum roll!!!) jewelry. And, in my much anticipated second life, the hoarder in me dreams of curating my eclectic collections in a vintage home with limewashed walls, red oxide floors, green louvered windows, and wrought-iron balconies swathed with fuschia bougainvilleas, fragrant rangoon creepers, honeysuckle, and night jasmine.

 

" It's who we all want to be; a life we all want to live; a dream we all want, for Debarati, to come true. Her well-wishers are many. Her students love her and cherish the time she gives them beyond the scope of any curriculum and counts their blessings they have a teacher who imparts to them not just the education required for living a life where work leads to professional and personal fulfilment but a life in which the boundaries of their thoughts are given no horizon so that they may imagine and reflect upon the vast possibilities of their changing the world for the better. In her own way, Debarati charges the solemn air around college academics with a dash of poignant energy that comes as much from the depth of her knowledge of and love for her subject as it does because of her overarching empathy and generosity towards the world around her and the people in it.

 

She comes to care for her parents, resident for long in Phuleswar, Howrah, every year. And when her father'd taken ill some time ago, she was with him every moment till he regained health. From written communication and face-to-face meetings we know how concerned Debarati is about the world going rogue on arts and craft. She's the kind who'd feel it deep within when vernacular talent submits to mechanized industry and the soul is sucked out of all things beautiful that are infused with a kind of divinity which comes only from creating with your own two hands even objects as simple as a madur or an earthen pot, or, for that matter, quotidian eats like Bengali mishti.

 

All this we tell you about Debarati because she won't, in as many words. She's too self-effacing to ever name her virtues beyond those that are evident in her personal and professional sphere. Her accomplishments are for all to see; her true beauty we hold up for you to know. As we look for icons to inspire us in our quest to make a difference and create our own history in this world, we need to find those such as Debarati to whom we must owe the debt of humanity and knowledge and selfless guidance that makes her not just a teacher of the greatest merit but also a supremely virtuous champion and one of incomparable nobility.

 

The necklace set, handcrafted with multi-generational expertise and traditional tools, in 22K gold, is a pearl set joroa design where five flowers bloom on a leafy vine. The gems are pavé set and the ornament is done in the traditional tol-paarh style. The collets in the middle of the flowers and at the ends of the tendrils hold the larger pearls that are cover-set. Likewise in the earrings, though here you'll see only the leaves making up the pattern. The design was sent to us by Debarati on mail and she wanted it replicated in full detail. That's what we did, but added the triple-leaf drop in the centre, below the large flower. It wasn't a huge change but a significant one that completed the jewel and gave it the essential playfulness of movement ---- an unexpected lightness of heart in an otherwise eminent ornament, so much like Debarati's personality that harbours her achievements with grace and tempers them with a cheerfulness that is at once engaging and vibrant. In that, this suite of jewels is who she is in all her reserve and all her splendour and so must be named after her. For you then, we present Debarati, in the nitid glory of pearls and gold.

Fine jewellery brooks no hierarchy. Earrings could be the sole ornament one wears to complement a formal attire. A necklace, though, is rarely worn alone.

This, here, is an afterthought. You w...

Fine jewellery brooks no hierarchy. Earrings could be the sole ornament one wears to complement a formal attire. A necklace, though, is rarely worn alone.

This, here, is an afterthought. You will remember the Tzolkin Naba Chandro Earrings from last Saturday. That stayed with you over the weekend and no one asked about its paired necklace whereas for the PritiParoma Pashas posted a few days later, there were specific enquiries for the matched neckwear.

This, here, appears an afterthought. The jhapta form's identical to the earrings and takes centre stage but the moons have reduced from nine to four. Everything else is the same : that serrated split-ball fringe, the kalkas in the moons and the star-studded chains. Only the order of crescents has changed, and those below are larger and more elaborate than the one they're tethered to. The faceted ball drop in the central among the lower half-moons is also detailed in.

To make it a necklace was required the double-kamal chain which, as you see, has uncharacteristically differentiated borders, one a plain ball, the other with chhela topas partially covered by the tinkling orbs. And the crescentic idiom from the Mayan calendar, though now much reduced in numbers, prevails over the centrepiece, so that what you see is precisely what you get.

All in all, a simple but spectacularly arranged jewel that holds in its guinea gold heart a certain feeling that it might just be a herald of greater things to come –– the earrings.

The nocturnal garden of love that comes alive with the rains, this necklace celebrates the erotic in chaste guinea gold, the ecstasy of passionate prem-bandhan immortalized in delicate delightful n...

The nocturnal garden of love that comes alive with the rains, this necklace celebrates the erotic in chaste guinea gold, the ecstasy of passionate prem-bandhan immortalized in delicate delightful naksha strung together with verses of luminous seed pearls.

A thick cluster of kurchi blossoms in the middle, a pair of peacocks make love, the makar on either side hold up the ends of the ardhachandra centrepiece like Kamadeva's own banner, and rows of gold balls recall kadamphul strewn across the earth.

We are all someone's lover. We have to be. And if there are cathering clouds, if there's a thunderstorm, if it is raining, let us be Vasantsena and venture into the night to love.

Mayurpur --- it's what our heart desires.

Charming

lariat necklaces

held together

by delicate

tulle butterflies

encrusted with

precious gems or

kaleidoscope

enameling.

All in 22k gold.

Only for t...

Charming

lariat necklaces

held together

by delicate

tulle butterflies

encrusted with

precious gems or

kaleidoscope

enameling.

All in 22k gold.

Only for those

who believe

in magic.