CHENNAI: Do you not like too much bling in your ornaments? Then meet Gayathri Venkat. She loves gold jewellery but nothing too shiny! Her page on FB and Instagram, Aabharanam, is all about making temple jewellery with a twist, and is a huge hit among Chennaiites.
With a fashion designing degree in hand, Gayathri’s calling was jewellery, which was her hobby. “Honestly, I first started making chains for myself. I had no intention of making it for more people, leave alone selling them,” she says.
So what is it that she did not like about traditional gold jewellery? “I love gold jewellery, but I am not a fan of those really shiny ones. So I decided to make my own jewellery where there is gold, and there are semi-precious stones. Personally, I love temple jewellery. Hence, I make all my pieces around it,” she adds.
She used to design clothes at home but as customers for her temple jewellery increased, she switched her focus. Gayathri gets the designs on gold from Kanyakumari and Andhra Pradesh, where she has a unit, and sources the stones from the north. “These are not pure gold; they are basically imitation jewellery with semi-precious kemp, but they last long. You can even repolish these jewels as you would polish a brass item,” she says.
For now, she focuses on neck pieces and sometimes on earrings too. “As it was totally unplanned, and I have very few workers to help me, we just do necklaces and haarams. I haven’t yet ventured into other products...but soon would like to,” she says. “Some customers bring their own designs and colour stones to match their sari or blouse. When I post the design, I give them credit as they are the real designers of the product.”
Initially Gayathri used to spend a lot of time with her customers to learn about their requirement, but now due to time and staff constraints she takes only limited orders. Her USP, she says, is her customisation. “I realised people like temple jewellery. Though there are many shops that sell it, they want to make it according to their own taste,” she adds.
Recalling her first piece that she made for herself, Gayathri says it was a chandran maalai. “I used the suryan-chandran that dancers wear on their head, as pendants. I then made a three-pendant chain for which I got around 1,000 followers in 24 hours of posting the picture,” she smiles.
Gayathri uses semi-precious beads and gold in equal measure. “I don’t use plastic or glass beads as they fade away or even break,” she claims. One of the fast moving items is the choker as it goes with both Indian and western wears. “Though most chains have a manga or bird design, the beads give it a different look and it goes with any dress you wear,” she points out.
While some products can be designed in 30 minutes, some which has pearls in it (especially in haaram) takes a lot of time as she needs to pick pearls of the same size. Depending on the piece, she can ship your products within three to five days of ordering. You can order through phone or mail.
While earrings start at `250, neck pieces start at `650. For details visit her Instagram page @aabharanam