Jewellery

The last blooms of Spring

Already a lot has been written about the climatic change in Calcutta in my previous posts. While spring was awaited, it came and left in a blur of just a few weeks. The temperature which was cool rose ten degrees as we move towards the sweltering summers. Already the fans are on and it won’t be long before air-conditioning would be a must to escape from the humid scorching sun.

While this transition was underway, a chance visit to the green room of a cultural program left me bedazzled. The dancers, though amateur, were bedecked with sholapith flowers as a wreath outlining the face. Gold jewellery adorned each part of the belles. Calcutta sari is also worn in a different way with the long ending is brought in front and swings a key. An oversized red bindi dots the forehead.

Traditional Indian Jewellery

It must have take some of these ladies at least a few hours, if not a week, to dig out their precious ornaments and coordinate it with their garment. And these ornaments are all from different states of India. They have been able to demonstrate pretty well “how its to be worn”.

How I used sequins to transform a Shell

Grey Metallic Bead and Shell necklace
Azure metallic beads
Rainbow metallic beads
Multicolored sequins
Silver Grey sequins
Yellow-Green metallic sequins
Red Metallic sequins
Metalic collection in Progress

Sometimes you just have to use what is available to come up with an innovative solution.

These are some designs from the metal sequin and shell collection that we had developed in Goa on our last visit. Its interesting how this came up. Mussel shells were the green shells that get generally thrown away as the locals found no use of them either in product craft or otherwise. The beautiful green color at the top had a tendency to chip. So most of the shells were lack luster at the top and green towards the bottom edge. We needed to give it a look that lasted. So after rummaging the local shops for locally available solutions, I developed this metal sequin look to cover the top area. The rest of the shell was given long lasting lacquer finish. We used some silken and cotton thread for the neck and voila, it was ready to use! The best part, half a dozen crafts women from Goa were trained to make a new kind of product which supports them in their livelihood.

I’m adding this post to Sue’s blog A word A week challenge: Metallic theme as it coincides with the topic.