Till the early 1990s, the average Indian bought jewelry for investment rather than for adornment. Since the late 1990s, there was a shift in consumer tastes; women were increasingly opting for fashionable and lightweight jewelry instead of heavy chunk Jewelry. The new millennium witnessed a defined change in consumer preference which further led to variations in jewelry with changing fashion trends. Thus, there appears to be an opportunity of creating a collection of contemporary jewelry in terracotta and stoneware for the modern independent woman. The range aims at creating an emotional connection with the user, hence making the range sustainable in terms of emotional durability.
This project focuses on the urban side of the coin taking into account the social cause also, exploring the various limitations that are unique to the urban lifestyle and how to overcome them to provide people with an optimum user experience. The brief gave me the chance to explore stoneware and terracotta as a medium and to utilize the properties exclusive to them. And answer some of the most common yet under-looked problems in modern-day professional life. Another minor brief, that I took up was to photograph and document Minhas Pottery’s works over the years of operation as an industry. This allowed me to experience the complete collection of Minhas’s work over the years and see firsthand how an actual working industry operates and the sheer volume and variety of work that comes out of a single organization.
It was challenging but, this project proved to be a great learning experience when it came to testing the limits of the medium. It led me to reason with all my learnings about ceramics and terracotta that I had accumulated over these past 4 years.
