Work-hobby balance is a rare to come by commodity for the deadline-driven working woman. Jyothi Radhakrishnan, a senior technical manager with Infosys, says it is not impossible.
Her brand of designer costume jewellery, Mayuri Jewels, is proof of it and a tribute of sorts to women constantly striving for balance. “A peacock is noticed for his beauty, but who looks at a peahen? She is also important. And then there is Sudha Chandran’s life, and the film Mayuri made on her, which also inspired me immensely. Hence the moniker.” She sells the jewellery via Facebook.
When it came to her hobby, she applied the same meticulousness her job demanded. The years of work experience guided her along her hobby. Five months of research into natural stones, jewellery making, sourcing for suppliers led to her first few pieces of jewellery. “Initially I showed them to a small group of friends who liked the collection and even picked up some pieces. That gave me the confidence to go ahead.”
As a young girl in Thiruvananthapuram, she’d make jewellery, ‘the kind young girls make’. She says she was always been inclined towards the arts. The interest waned as she grew up, got into engineering college, found a job, got married and moved to Bangalore. In 2012 she felt the urge to return to jewellery making. She works with natural stones and beads (natural such as areca nut); setting these in non-allergic material (right down to the clasps) – usually silver and pewter (an alloy of zinc). “I source material from certified vendors in India and abroad. If I get it from the original source, the quality is guaranteed.”
She works weekends on her hobby. “Earlier when I had just begun, I’d be awake late in the night making/designing the pieces. It was the excitement and newness of the enterprise.” Over the years, she has worked out a schedule wherein the bulk of the work is done over Fridays through Sundays, after which the images are uploaded on Facebook. Her husband helps with the photography which is crucial to the enterprise. She is grateful to her employers for not only not discouraging her but also acknowledging her as a woman entrepreneur.
Jhumkas , neckpieces – beaded and others, earrings, nose-pin, maang tikkas …she makes them all. She is particular about exclusivity. “I do not make several pieces of the same kind. Even when I source, for instance if it is a pendant I pick up only one to make a necklace. I wouldn’t like it if I attended a function and somebody else was wearing the same thing.” Once she got jhumkas carved out of a single piece of turquoise. She says she likes the fun of working with various materials and stones such as mother of pearl, lapis lazuli, onyx, jade and pearls; and the excitement of working with new stones. She has a few silversmiths who make various components which would later become a single piece.
The jewellery (she has designed 1,500 pieces) is not numerically coded, instead has beautiful names such as Samarkand, Dreams of Maldives, Hridayakamalam, Jodha, Miracle Garden, Subhadra and such. She counts celebrities among her clients – Menaka Suresh, Kaniha – besides a host of others. Customisation, to match outfits – for weddings and other functions – also get her orders. The prices of the jewellery start at Rs. 200 and can go up to Rs.20,000. For more https://www.facebook.com/mayurijewels
