silver

Nizam Jewelry Collection

The Nizam of the Royal family of Hyderabad in India, was declared the “richest man in the world” by Time magazine in the 1940’s. His legendary jewels, one of the most famous in the world consisted of a fantastic collection of ornaments, loose precious stones, especially uncut diamonds, rubies and emeralds.

This jewelry collection, which formed a part of his enormous wealth and prestige of his royal estate and was built over the period that the Nizams ruled from 1792 to 1948. They follow a mixture of Muslim and Indian craftsmanship with a distinct leaning towards the Southern ‘Deccani’ workmanship acquired from the ‘Vijaynagar’ Kingdom.

The pieces were in gold and silver work embedded with uncut diamonds and edged with silver ‘kundan’ or just gold and silver work with diamonds and tear drop emeralds with enameled work on the back; intricate designs with a mixture of western influence and indigenous style.

The Jewels have inspired many famous creations by famous designers like Cartier. I too derived inspiration to create a line of diamond jewelry that reflects the rich cultural heritage of this era and are presented here.

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Jewelry from Designs by Sudha for Compassion, protection and optimism!

Gemstones used in earrings this month have more than summer charm, they also symbolize the values I hold.

Chalcedony with its turquoise blue opaque color stands for Compassion. It is also said to banish fear and sadness. This earring was presented by House of Pennathur for Sundance Catalog this year and has been depicted beautifully by them. “In separateness lies the world’s great misery, in compassion lies the world’s true strength.” – Buddha

Citrine is embodies Radiance. It is said to attract wealth, blend energies for strength and protection, enhance memory, stimulates one’s mental capacities and strengthen ones self-confidence! It also happens to be the birthstone for November. These earrings are faceted citrine enhanced with delicate small pearls and finished with 14K gold filled posts.

Birthstone for April, the mighty diamond stands for purity. It is said to encourage honesty with self and with others and is said to promote bravery . This year I have worked with new designs in jewelry where to astronomical price of gold, I have used diamonds in silver setting with 14K gold as lining and bezel. This new way to treating gem stones and precious metals has made the baubles a lot more affordable and at the same time giving it a fresh new look!

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Art of Lacquer in Jewelry and Decorative Accessories

I have long been fascinated with the exquisitely handcrafted lacquer and gemstone Meenakari by jewelers in Jaipur, India. I first introduced this “Meenakari” enameling technique over lacquer on gold and silver jewelry. The necklace from Designs by Sudha is strung with garnets and mina chowkies” squares, and has been a signature piece in my collection. The process is laborious. A piece is fixed on a stick of lacquer and delicate floral designs engraved on it . Engravings are made in the groves and the enamel colors filled in with the delicacy of a miniature paintings. ‘Kundan’ and mina are part of great jewelry heritage of India.

In decorative arts, I introduced lacquer with mirrors during Diwali, the festival of lights in India some 26 years ago! I saw bangles being made in the streets of old Jaipur city on a street called “chudion ka rastha”. Literally translated means “street of bangles” where all the lac bangle makers sit in a row over hot flames crafting these lovely adornments. In the night when fireworks were resplendent, all the lac studded with mirrors reflected the light and were splendorous!

I thought why not expand this technique to other everyday used items and make life more colorful? From the bangles, an idea evolved from “ Designs by Sudha” of lac pocket mirrors reflecting the festival of lights, trinket boxes to hold your do-dads, mini frames for the dresser, lacquer handcrafted votives which had replaceable wax to make it more sustainable, lac ball ornaments for Christmas which were glitzy, lacquer pens with replaceable ink refills.

All these pieces in my handicraft collection have become sustainable, timeless treasures of art.

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Trends in Christmas Ornaments and Jewelry Adornments

In my world of unique crafts, “Ornaments” are small decorative objects for the Christmas tree and “Adornments” is jewelry used to beautify oneself, whether it be a necklace, a bracelet, ring or a pair of earrings. Designs by Sudha is in the business of both these types of ornamentation’s and adornments.

This year these have taken on an interesting twist. Customers who loved gold and glitz in their Christmas ornaments have turned to bright jewel tone colors. Fun stuffed animal ornaments made by gypsy craftsmen, hand painted papier mache animals from Kashmir, beaded birds and snowflakes from Agra have been the top choices of retailers. The traditional gold and silver has taken second place to the jewel tone ornaments. Skirts and stockings too have become more colorful with reds and golds with pearls.

Similarly with the price of metals going through the roof this year, I have focused on jewelry with more semi-precious stones and gold plating on silver (vermeil), and less on the pure precious metals. Diamonds once only set in gold are now being set using “polki diamonds” (these are uncut diamonds and very popular in the days of the Maharajas) , set in sterling silver with just accents of 14K gold in the bezel and backing. We will see a lot more of these interesting mixtures of metals and stones in my line this fall.

Pearls have become a girl’s best friend
and is featured throughout my line of jewelry and is a jewel of choice my museum catalogs.

Next week I will be featuring the art of lacquer in all areas of decorative handicrafts.

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Summer Stones

Summer is fast approaching and the flowers are in bloom. The colors of the gem stones resemble the flowers in nature.

Silver took a plunge after an enormous hike this year. Prices in India, however, did not ease too much. With silver being somewhat out of reach, I have been working on jewelry with semi-

precious and precious stones. As I uncover the significance of stones , symbols and colors in Eastern culture, it has been fun weaving them into meaningful jewelry and textiles. Here are a few stones that are in my collection:

Amethyst stands for spirituality: