In continuation of my blog on Recycling here's a new section on reuse. This will talk about reusing existing jewelry in new forms with a little or no modification so as to make it versatile.
To start with I would like to show some of my neck piece designs in which the pendants have all come from earrings. You can do all sorts of pendants using whole earrings or even parts of them. In the picture on the left I have used an antique engraved broken hoop along with a couple of glass beads and have tied them to a silk cord to make a necklace.
Though any type of an earring can be used, Hoops and rings are very versatile and can adapt well.
Depending on your findings that you add to your piece the outcome would differ. In the above visual I have used big glossy acrylic hoops to achieve two different kinds of effects. In the first one adding a small wire wrap for an ethnic touch.
So here's a collage of some of my pics based on this concept. This is a great way to utilise a single earring when the pair is broken or lost. Keep adding findings or danglers to the base to come up with a variety of designs. you can also add bits of swede or silk threads to make it look contemporary. Hope this post was interesting - Strictly to be followed when feeling experimental.
All that writing about ancient jewelry has been quite a pain in the neck(literally) i have decided to shift to simple and light hearted stuff...
Beading is quite fun to start with. But after 500 designs i started getting bored and wanted to explore other forms of costume jewelry. It was then I chanced about wire wrapping and recycle craft. wire wrapping is quite wonderful but it requires a great deal of patience and practise and am still trying to get a hang of it. So for the time being let me stick to recycle art - specifically to accessories(not just jewelry) made form Paper & scrap fabric dotted with whatever beads and findings I could find(orphan/single beads are great for projects like these). Fortunately or unfortunately a design school degree often prompts you to think in a certain regulated direction...In this case a colour story. I have divided my whole project into 4 colour blocks - blue/blacks, reds/pinks, greens and gold/yellows. Here are pics of some of them
Paper Jewelry This was around the same time I discovered paper jewelry. At that time didn't realise that it was a Victorian tradition for women of the household to gather around the table after lunch to roll beads from scrap of paper to be used as curtains and room separators
Also I would to share with all of you a great tutorial sheet I had found on bead rolling on the internetRosettes - I love flowers and fabric. I have a large collection of fabrics that I had collected during my college days and decided to make something out of them. So i turned them into brooches, hairbands, hairclips and earrings. Soon I started making paper/ newspaper rosettes. These are great for gift wrapping/ packaging and even display
When you create a line as eclectic as this why wrap it up in boring ziplocks and squishy plastic bags. So I came up up some paper bags and newspaper boxes to pack them. This is just a few pieces of my first collection. Am constantly on the lookout for more techniques and in the process of putting together my second collection. Would get back soon with more.
Here’s a list of Ancient Indian Ornaments (from Vedic period – Gupta) in accordance to each part of the body starting from the head. Please add to the list of you find something missing.Many of these are in use even now and many of them disappeared in the following periods and made an emergence after a few centuries (like sitara, bindi) and a few like the(Torque, Ratnavali) have been included as a societal norm in the passage of time. (Visual - www.harappa.com)
These Ornaments have not only been worn by women but also by men (esp royalty) as seen from ancient sculptures, paintings and frescoes.
Head
-Mukuta/ Kirita : a decorative tiara or crown
-Ratnavali / Ratnajali : from the elaborate tiara-like ornament around the head, strands of pearls form a net over the hair-style; there is a central ornament at the forehead from which are suspended strands of pearls
-Opasa : a simple fillet or headband
-Mauli – Decorative turban (not actually considered jewelry)
- Chudamani : lotus-shaped, its petals composed of pearls and precious stones.Was worn normally in the centre of the knotted hair.
Forehead
- Sitara: Star shaped ornament of gold or silver with a stamped pattern, with or without the Bina. Worn below the parting of the hair and at the center of the forehead
- Makarika : fish-crocodile shaped and worn at the front parting of the hair
- Bindi- a dot traditional made with kunkum or sindoor
Ear
Earring or karnika – three types of earrings were present
Trumpet-shaped (Flower Shaped) – Karnaphul
Disc Shaped - Dehri
Circle or Ring - Kundala
Karnika - Jimki/ Jumkha (shape of lotus seed-pod fixed upside down like a tassel)
- Often Karnaphul was generically called Karnika
- In the later periods the karnaphul was dominated by ornamental rosettes and the kundala with wire work and beads.
- Bali: small earrings with suspended pearls; worn higher up on the ear
Neck
- Kantha : Short necklace of beads (usually heavy and flat)
- Lambanam: long necklace of beads worn between the breasts – sometimes with amulet boxes
Both Kantha & lambanam ranges from being 3 stringed to seven stringed – usually made with gold/silver beads or pearls
- Tilari – 3 stringed
- Chaulari– 4 stringed
- Paklari– 5 stringed
- Satlari– 7 stringed
- Hara : similar to lambanam called hara In the later periods
- Phalaka: three or five slab-like gems, inserted at regular intervals to hold together the several strings of which a necklace was composed, and whole was called a phalakahara.
-Yashti :A necklace of gems and gold beads
- Nishka : Coin necklace
- Mukatavali: necklace of one strand of small pearls. Suddha Ekavali : a single strand pearl necklace with a gem at the centre; has ribbon ties
- Sutra: chain for the neck. When made of gold with precious stones in the centre, it was called hemasutra (led to the MangalSutra meaning holy chain)
- Vijayantika : necklace of strings of looped pearls with precious stones
- Vaikaksha: two long strings of pearls crossed at the chest
- Atkan : bead necklace worn aslant over the left shoulder and under the right arm(akin to the sacred thread)
-Yajnopavita : sacred thread
- Torque: twisted wire necklace of Celtic origin
Hands
- Baju Band/ Keyura: armlet with simple or elaborate patterns. Keyura mostly had clasps while the baju band was mostly tie-up
- Kangan: bracelets of beads on each wrist (thick usually 3 – 5 strings)
- Valaya : bangles of glass, shell, or ivory sometimes with claps worn at wrist
- Angada : Coiled snake like armlet
- Anguliya : ring / Ratnanguliya : Ring made with stones
Waist/ Hip
- Mekala: Multi stringed beads hip belt (originally made from red seed kaksha & then from gold/silver)
- Patka : A strip of woven beads tucked in at the front of the waist reaching the ankles – later became a shaped embroidered gridle of cloth of gold
Legs
Thigh:
- Pada-patra – Garter like ornament worn at the thigh
Feet:
- Kinkini – anklet with its small bells (Similar – Ghunghru)
- Nupura – simple cylindrical anklet - Maninupura - anklet made from jewelled beads
- Sankla : anklets made of thick chains
- Kara : Anklets of twisted wire worn on both ankles
- Manjira : hollow and light, coiling several times around the ankles loosely, and tinkling when in motion as it had gems inserted in the hollow (Reference to Kannagi- Kovalan)
Materials used : Apart from Gold (hiranya and suvarana), silver (rupya) and copper (tamra), a lot of gemstones/ ratna were used. These included carnelians’s, agates, lapis lazuli, amethysts, garnets, coral, and pearls, rubies, Sapphires, topaz, diamonds and cat’s eye, and crystals. Pearls and beads of all kinds including those made of glass were used.
Besides this, the art of enameling was known, as well as inlay work in shell and mother-of-pearl. Gold beads were filigreed or filled with lac, while others had cores of jasper and turquoise paste and were strung on thread or wire to be worn as necklaces. Ivory was used extensively to make combs, brooches, hairpins, boxes and other objects. More often than not Embroidery took the place of jewels for its vibrancy and light weight
- I have tried my best to give a compilation of information from various sources of history. As always there might be some overlapping or error due to deciphering. Please correct them if there are any. Suggestions & additions are most welcome. This concludes my two part series on the ancient Indian jewelry.
Women over the world as a basic instinct have an obsession for ornaments and as Indians it is something we are most attached to. No Indian woman's wedding Trousseau is complete without a large chunk of the gleaming yellow metal studded with sparkling brick sized stones. But is it only gold that impresses them or are they crazy about any form of jewelry. Never for a moment doubt that wearing costume jewelry is a new found craze in India. The use of Glass beads as everyday jewelry can be dated back to the Mauryan & Sunga periods. It is only the western world that recognised this trend very late in the 20th century.
The significance of wearing Jewelry in India varies from place to place and community to community. There is a wide range of Jewelry used by Indian women through ages (i.e an ornament for each part of the body). It is believed that wearing of Jewelry came into existence not only for beauty, but also a kind of therapy where in it is said that piercing nose and ear is a kind of acupuncture treatment and would bring down the mental disturbances and makes women more patient and strong enough to face obstacles in life. Bangles in hands and anklets in legs make them slender. Similarly the naval chain or gold belts would maintain the girth of the waist and the Metti (toe ring) increases fertility by encouraging the production of reproductive hormones.
The truth in this has to be gauged only by experts and since I am not one I'll skip to the part where there is a name and description for jewelry that adorns each part of our body - in accordance to the vedic traditions.
In my next blog I shall talk about the ornaments starting from the Vedic period (with probable background with the passing of centuries)
I am an apparel designer by qualification but passionate about jewelry. This and a frustrating tenure at a corporate house led me to start my own brand of affordable designer jewelry in August 2008 - Sayuri - an indication of my fascination with Japanese culture. Many I know , have wondered if this has anything to do with the book - The Memoirs of Geisha. No I only read the book long after choosing this name for my brand. Sayuri - means a small Lily. To me its a flower that blooms to give happiness after surviving a dark storm. I found it to be metaphorical of my state of mind at that time.
Through this blog I hope to discuss the various aspects of jewelry - Inspiration, making and sale that I have learnt in the course of the last 18 months - a journey that was and is completely aided by the internet.
So here's a collage of some of my pics based on this concept. This is a great way to utilise a single earring when the pair is broken or lost. Keep adding findings or danglers to the base to come up with a variety of designs. you can also add bits of swede or silk threads to make it look contemporary. Hope this post was interesting - Strictly to be followed when feeling experimental.
