Serendipity took Divya Thomas by the hand and led her to a session of bead stringing. Four hours spent with beads; stringing, undoing and redoing combinations – karma came calling. The ‘Karmasuthra' line of jewellery, actually.
Contemporary bold
This line of jewellery is not for the tradition bound, it is more for the bold and the contemporary. ‘Karmasuthra' is not ‘jewellery jewellery' it is more of a statement, albeit stylised. Makes sense too, rather than blow a million bucks on something a.k.a. the yellow metal that you are going to ‘locker' up. And also a very good excuse for trying the off beat. Lava beads, Fool's gold (Pyrite), Abalone shells, Labrodite, rudraksha, black onyx are some of the ‘beads' that go into the making of Karmasuthra jewellery. By the way if you are conservative when it comes to your beads, let's make that corals and turquoise, then the light-eyed Divya has the answer, “every Indian woman should wear coral and turquoise…it complements the Indian complexion so much.”
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Coming back to serendipity, Divya was doing clinical research at Duke Hospital (North Carolina) when the beads happened to her three years back. After that it was the life of an elf (for some time) “I would get back from work, finish work at home and then work at night like an elf. Work till four in the morning, sleep for a couple of hours and then back to work.” That was till she decided that she wanted to give more time to the jewellery making. Thus was born Karmasuthra.
The moniker is not about effect there is a bit of spirituality entwined with the jewellery. Divya (a necklace person…she sports ‘a few' chunky neck pieces) says, “Karma - what goes around comes around (so does a necklace) and sutra – is something that binds (mangalsutra) and in Greek suture is again something that binds or joins.” Necklaces too go around the neck. By the way, she has strung each necklace, although she has people to whom she sources some work. There are earrings too, if you want to coordinate them with a neck piece.
If there is one adjective that fits Divya's jewellery line it is free spirited. There is no pretentiousness in the way the beads (calling rubies and emeralds is reductionism!) have been strung, there is method in the haphazardness. If amethysts signify what is delicate, then the necklace made from shards of amethyst and similar-shaped crystals is a stunner.
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Divya confesses to being something of a rebel “when it comes to putting things together.”
Then there are the clasps, when was the last time you paid attention to that tiny but most important element of a necklace? Each clasp of the necklaces is different, “I added drama to the ends of what I make, the clasp is important,” she says. Most of the clasps are silver and some are made of pewter (lead free – ‘so none has to worry about allergies') to balance out the price factor.
Divya shows me some of the necklaces, one look and it was clear that it would have to be an imposing woman who wore those, “no! any woman can wear them.” This collection is really about attitude and confidence. The necklace made from lava beads looks startlingly like smoothened rudraksham. And do they look heavy? That is until Divya prods me into just holding the necklace, I ready myself and prepare to hold what looks like a kilo….it was almost feather light, whatever weight there was came from the silver pendant. The Abalone shell necklaces are another, similar story.
Catch the sale at Chanakya Hall, Avenue Center on August 5 and 6 . The timings are 10 am to 8 pm.