Redefining beads

Pallavi Foley, whose intriguing necklace 3-space was recently placed second in the Saul Bell Design Award Competition 2010, talks to Venus Upadhayaya about her design inspirations.

October 23, 2010 06:59 pm | Updated November 02, 2016 10:19 pm IST

It's different: The 3-space piece. Photo: Special Arrangement

It's different: The 3-space piece. Photo: Special Arrangement

When jewellery becomes a piece of art and starts redeeming imagination, it becomes unique. Pallavi Dudeja Foley, one of India's leading jewellery designers, has won second place in the ‘beads category' of the Saul Bell Design Award Competition 2010. Pallavi won this prestigious international award for her piece ‘3-space'. Both the designer and her breathtakingly intriguing necklace were honoured in Las Vegas, during the JCK Las Vegas recently.

Intriguing piece

“The form of the 3-space bead necklace is derived from my imagination. It is a result of endless sketching to reach a piece that I believe is unique, dramatic, bold and surprising,” explains Pallavi better known as a couture jewellery designer and artist in the industry.

Each bead that forms “3-space” is triangular but as soft as a bead. What the designer attempted was to create an interesting space in a bead that interacts with other beads as well as with the thread that passes through it. “Creating space in a bead is what I wanted to do. It was to see how a virtual and the real space interact in a bead,” explains Pallavi. The pyramidal beads, which are pave set, are centred within a pyramid- shaped frame. Each double-pyramid bead is threaded through the middle and spins independently, raising interesting questions of space and dimension. Custom-cut, triangular-shaped pink tourmalines and amethysts are bezel set on the edges, enhancing the unique quotient of the piece.

“The beauty is that by simply changing the colour of the cord, the beads can look different,” Pallavi further explains. “The idea was to redefine the concept of a bead. Whether worn as a single piece or as a necklace, it works fantastically.”

The recipient of many national and international awards, Pallavi won her first award as a student of ‘Accessory Design' at NIFT. She designed the Miss India Universe and the Miss India Earth crowns 2007 for Tanishq.

The Miss India Universe crown was a stylised representation of the dynamism of the planets and their orbits and adorned with 789 stones; while the Femina Miss India Earth crown derived its inspiration from the essence of Nature.

Inspired by the Taj

Another design — an earring called “The Taj”, inspired by the Taj Mahal and visualised in white gold, diamonds and coloured stones — won an honourable mention in the Red Carpet Category of WJA Diva Awards, New York last year.

According to Pallavi, “My jewellery is meaningful and stimulating and hopes to touch a person in more ways than just appealing. They are inspired by relevant themes and are enriching, enchanting and rejuvenating. Each piece has a story to tell and connects with a person at many levels.”

The Saul Bell Design Award, which considers designers as artists and jewellery as their medium, was a natural attraction for this versatile artist. “The 2010 competition challenged jewellery designers to push the boundaries of creativity as they created original and innovative pieces in their choice of six categories,” she explains. In its 10th year now the award continues to recognise artists from across the globe whose work challenges traditional perceptions of jewellery design.

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