Sthiti by Asha A. Nair
Diploma in Fine Jewellery Design 2024 Batch
Asha A. Nair baked up some fashion-forward jewelry, taking cues from the fabled Bengali painter Jamini Roy. Jamini Roy was crazy about rough colors, thick lines, and tales plucked out of Indian villages. Asha turned that warm, folk-art energy up to the notch. It channels strong Poy-inspired essence but reimagined with a sharp, contemporary edge.
The journey wasn’t smooth sailing. Material sourcing was a wild goose chase. Asha needed the pieces to be lush and pop like Roy’s works but with a conscious effort to honor the planet, not harm it. Sourcing materials that were eco-friendly but had bold Bengali art was an agony. Replicating a glossy, ceramic-like finish through the meticulous complexities of enamel work was far from effortless. The prototypes just weren’t channeling that Roy-esque punch.
Discovering a karigar was an entirely different feat. After being rejected a million times, one of the artisans recommended solid gold. Asha embarked on a cross-country artisan crawl—from Rajasthan to Kerala to Bangalore—until she finally found silver. 92.7% pure, matte-finish silver.
The finishing bling: wire-set beads, bouncy pearls, vivid splashes of blue and green, all bound together with the hallmark earthy, textured enamel. Each piece oozes old-fashioned folk charm but has a fresh feel. It’s half art, half fashion flex, but whole heart.
