Surrounded by emeralds, rubies, and diamonds from an early age, Pramiti Goenka was always drawn to the coloured stones and wanted to work with them. Coming from a family of jewellers from Jaipur, Goenka who studied gemology from GIA, New York, creates jewellery with precious and semi-precious stones that can go with any outfit. “Coloured stones have their own story to tell; an emerald is fun, the opal is young and a ruby is classic. I understand stone combinations and try to bring out their beauty,” she says.
Shine and sparkle
The fifth generation jeweller got her brand name registered in 2014 and that’s when Athvlya by Pramiti Goenka was launched. “My son was born in 2017 and though I was working from home, the idea of having my own showroom had taken shape in my head. I wanted a boutique space where people can come, relax, browse and buy jewellery at their own pace,” says Goenka, who has her studio in Noida. She works around stones first and then sketches the design to make earrings, neckpieces, tassel pendants, rings and bracelets.
Experimental by choice
Finish is as important to her as are fine details. Goenka, who sells single pieces, wants women to mix and match jewellery and hence creates versatile pieces. Her neckpieces come with adjustable length options so that women can wear them long, medium and short. She has two collections-gold and yatra. While the gold collection is made with rubies, emeralds, diamonds, sapphires, tanzanites and opals, the yatra collection is set in silver and precious and semi-precious stones.
Price Rs 50,000 to Rs 10 lakh (for gold collection); Rs 10,000 to Rs 1.5 lakh (for yatra collection)
By Shelly Anand
Neety Singh 47, Founder, Neety Singh Jewellery, Gurgaon
www.neetysinghjewellery.com
“Design comes easy to me and I go by my instinct while working on a piece of jewellery,” says Neety Singh who likes to spend time with her customers to understand their tastes and personalities before sketching and working on their request. Attracted to and inspired by Indian craft and heritage, she experiments with traditional jewellery design and gives it a bold and modern look. So, expect a lot of polki, meenakari, jadau, and kundan in her collection of earrings, neckpieces, rings, cuffs and bracelets, and sets but all with a bohemian outlook. 
Singh, who left her corporate job with an airline ten years ago to follow her passion-crafting bejewelled jewellery-makes uncomplicated, practical designs that have strong Indian aesthetics but international silhouettes. “My black meenakari and diamonds earrings, for example, are a good fit for both your traditional and Western outfits and can take you from day to night,” she says. She uses lots of diamonds in yellow gold as she feels that Indian skin can carry off the combination beautifully. She also experiments by using precious stones such as rubies, emeralds and sapphires with lesser used stones like citrines, amethysts and peridots.
Stressing the need to have useful, multifunctional jewellery, she gives her buyers the option of coming back to her to get their wedding jewellery repurposed. “Jewellery is all about looking good,” she says. With international shows to her credit, Singh does three collections a year and her designs vary from light to cocktail pieces and wedding jewellery. What’s big this season For bridal, the bigger the better and layering is trending.
Price Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh
By Shelly Anand
Raji Anand 41, Founder, Raji Anand Jewellery, Chennai
www.facebook.com/rajidesign
SUMANTH KUMAR
Nuts, bolts, ice cream sticks, and more recently, Scottish plaid fabric. Nothing is considered too outrageous to make a piece of beautiful jewellery in Raji Anand’s studio. Chennai-based Anand takes pride in the fact that she is not a trained jewellery designer and hence can turn the rules that come with being one on their head. “I don’t start with a draft, but with a picture in my head, which is followed by laying out the material I want to use in the piece,” she says.
Statement pieces that lend themselves easily to both traditional and contemporary wear may be her forte, but it is her temple jewellery with a twist that keeps people coming back. With a global clientele and no seasonal collections, Anand lets inspiration from everyday objects decide what enters her range.
“Sometimes a small element can trigger off an entire series of statement pieces,” she says. Having launched her brand in 2012 with an earlier foray into garments, she now creates necklaces, earrings, cuffs, hair bands and finger rings. Her new collections include Steam Punk, where she uses spare parts such as nuts and bolts for bold, contemporary pieces, and her recent experiments with fabric jewellery as well.
Over the years, Anand has managed to establish a niche for herself where she treads the line between contemporary and ethnic with ease, catering to both at once. “When you are wearing a traditional saree but not draping it in conventional style, the traditional gold and silver jewellery often doesn’t make the cut. That’s where I come in,” she says.
[“source-indiatoday”]