We’ve been talking about India, how India inspires me and what makes a design Indian, all through this month. Let’s have a look at my designs, which were influenced by my experiences gained from both of my visits to the country.
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DANCE OF THE PEACOCK PENDANT
Indian people have always lived in a close relationship with nature. They have a deep understanding of the natural world, it’s been incorporated into their beliefs and religions. Gradually, they’ve added trees, animals, flower designs to their art and they became a symbol of wealth, health, royalty, etc. India’s national bird is the peacock, it’s been carved to stone and wood, used for decoration of walls or textiles there, for its majesty and glamorous colors.
“Peacock, especially its feathers is closely associated with Lord Krishna, one of the 10 incarnations of Lord Vishnu. According to a story, in Govardhana Hill at Braj, once when Lord Krishna was playing his flute “peacocks started dancing in joy and excitement listening to the sweet melody. “
The tutorial can be yours for FREE, too, if you subscribe to my e-mail list. If you’re short of Peacock shaped antique bronze pendant, just click here, we still have them in stock 🙂
CHANDR DEVEE NECKLACE
The necklace was originally designed as a headpiece for Flora, a burlesque-dancer in Amsterdam. She created a scene for herself as Moon-Goddess, and wished to accompany the performance with a piece of statement jewelry, representing the faces of the Moon. Flora revealed, she regularly travels to India for new inspirations. I didn’t want the design to remain only on pictures as a memory, so I created the “Moon Goddess” neckless, or Chandr Devee in Hindi. The 3 color-combinations each representing something connected to nature: River, Sunshine, and Mountain.
The complete Chandr Devee collection available on the webshop (tutorial and kits – in limited amount). Here is the video revealing the Chandr Devee necklace.
TARAK NECKLACE
The name of this design – “Tarak” – comes from the Hindi word “taara”, in the beautiful original writing “तारा” and it means “star”. On a month-long journey in 2011 to India, we visited Rajahstan: the land of Maharajas and Maharanis, with fortresses and palaces straight from the tales of One Thousand and One Nights. The hillside stronghold of Taragarh or Star Fort in the little village of Bundi is definitely among the most interesting ones.
From the abandoned palace in Bundi
It was constructed in 1354, but nowadays most of it together with its three entrance gateways is in ruins. During its golden age tunnels were crisscrossing the entire hillside, but are now inaccessible. The fortress itself is still open to visitors, however, its huge water reservoirs are now full of opal coloured, dirty water and are infested by snakes.
The rooms of the citadel provide a home to numerous monkeys, which have no respect for the proud walls reminding us of the long-gone, victorious years. The Taragarh could easily be used as a background to Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book, and only the most determined travelers dare to enter. During the daytime, there are travelers wandering around the halls, but all of them return to the village before sunset. The old fortress is left to nature to finally overtake the unclimbable bastions.
The Tarak beaded bead tutorial is available here.
JAIPUR EARRINGS
Jaipur is one of my favorite cities in India, I visited. It’s also called the Pink city, due to the paint used on the majority of buildings. The city and it’s majestic Amber fort is part of the World Heritage UNESCO. Thank to our friend Monika, who was at the time living there in Jaipur, we got to know the city from a different perspective. We met locals from different castes and backgrounds, learned about lifestyle and about living in India as a foreigner. She showed us the beautiful Hindu Temple made from white marble: Birla Mandir, or without her, we probably wouldn’t visit Jantar Mantal, the observatory built by the founder of the city. Her boss was kind enough, to provide us with a private chauffeur and car for a day of sightseeing, which brought us into many-many awkward+funny+more funny situations, as the driver didn’t speak a single word of English… That’s how we ended up at a different sight than we planned to but also were welcomed in his house in spite of being complete strangers.
My Jaipur collection (kits in 3 colour-combinations, using handmade art quality clay cabochons, rhinestone chains and beautiful drops in a metal setting, and of course the tutorial) available here.
INDIRA BRACELET
The Indira bracelet takes its name after the first and to date, only female Prime Minister of India, Indira Ghandi. A powerful politician, member of the Parliament, she was even elected as the President of the Indian National Congress in 1959.
You can find the Indira bracelet tutorial here. Indira bracelet making kits available in 3 different colors in my webshop here.
KALPANA NECKLACE AND EARRINGS
My richest and widest collection of necklaces and earrings, when it comes to colour-combinations. It is named after Kalpana Chawla, an American astronaut, and engineer, the first female astronaut of Indian origin. She participated in two space missions and is regarded as a national hero in India.
There are 4 necklaces and 4 matching earrings-making-kits and both tutorials available here. You can turn the design even into a brooch (without the tassel).
VIRUPAKSHA PENDANT AND EARRINGS
During my first visit to India in 2010, we traveled 300 km in 13.5 hours (!) on the bus, arriving at one of the loveliest, friendliest, and most beautiful places we’ve experienced: to Hampi. The Virupaksha temple is part of the Group of Monuments of Hampi, the World Heritage of UNESCO. The temple is dedicated to Lord Virupaksha, a form of Shiva. Although the city itself was destructed in 1565, the temple stands intact, still used for worship. I’ve also met Lakshmi, the Temple Elephant and received a blessing from him (in exchange for some banans and rupies).
The pendant and earrings tutorial is available here.
DIWALI BRACELET
Diwali is the Hindu festival of lights, celebrated every year around October and November. It symbolizes the spiritual “victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance.”
My fellow Beadsmith Squaddie Jayashree Paramesh of Nchantme beading posted some pictures about the festivities, and the photos brought back memories from my travels in India several years ago. Both of the journeys, especially the first one in 2010 together with my two best friends (my husband and my big sister) were eye-opening. I realized how important it is to be perceptive and stay emotional. To live meaningfully it’s necessary to observe the world around us. To notice how beautiful it is, and also how cruel can it be sometimes.
The Diwali bracelet’s tutorial is available in the webshop. You can read my article about it here.
I’ll be very interested, how your own jewels and color-combinations will turn out, make sure to send me pictures of your work to [email protected] .
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Sources:
https://blogvirasatehind.com/2016/12/30/peacock-in-indian-art-depiction-in-different-cultures/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indira_Gandhi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalpana_Chawla
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