City artist turns breast milk into jewellery, keepsakes
BENGALURU: A Bengaluru-based artist is turning the experience of breastfeeding into tangible keepsakes that parents can cherish forever — breast milk jewellery. Divya Tata, 30, a PhD graduate in Chemistry, is making all kinds of bracelets, charms, finger rings, bangles and keepsakes from batches of freshly produced milk.
“I call it ‘DNA artistry’. Every order I take reminds me of those two years when I struggled to find my own formulae to make my first piece of breast milk (BM) jewellery,” says Divya.
While there are many who raise their eyebrows when she tells them what she's doing, many new mothers have found this concept of processed breast milk around their necks as pendants extremely appealing. “It's a way of preserving that first bonding experience with their child,” says Divya.
While one cannot pin-point the exact year breast milk jewellery came into being globally, according to Divya, it was in 2016 that she first came across the concept. “A friend of mine had come to India for her delivery, and she asked me if I knew anyone who does BM jewellery in Bengaluru,” Divya says. Divya, who had just delivered a baby girl, started to experiment using her own breast milk. She sought help from her PhD professor, Dr Lakshman, and took almost two years to complete one pendent made from her BM.
“With a small child and my parents constantly asking me to be careful while dealing with chemicals, I took two years to come up with a final product. My joy couldn’t be contained,” she adds. Explaining the process of taking orders, Divya says, "I get the breast milk from mothers wanting a keepsake to celebrate the journey of bonding with their newborn child. Some mothers are also buying these items to keep as special gifts for their babies when they are grown up.”
Milk sent in test tubes, syrup bottles
Most of her clients are from Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai. She gives clear instructions to the women as to how the package needs to be sent. The process involves three steps. Preservation of the milk starts from the day the milk is received. It is usually sent either in testtubes or clean syrup bottles.
“I preserve the milk the day I receive it. Just like you boil regular milk before drinking it, BM is also sterilised in an autoclave." Saying that she cannot reveal the secret ingredients that she adds to the milk, Divya says, “I separate the milk from the fat first through the process of coagulation. The next step is to keep it in a silver base for one week, without any kind of disturbance. Once the fat and water have separated, I remove the fat carefully with a spatula.”
She then adds her second ingredient and tests that on a PH scale. It has to be seven on the scale. It is then left for a few days to harden, before being sanded and sunk into the resin and left again for a few days. After that, it’s turned into jewellery or baby plaques. Divya is also keen to allay any fears that the milk might go bad and start smelling or turn a funny colour. “It’s all about how you preserve the milk,” she says.
Speaking to City Express, one of her happy customers, Medha Dixit Vallal, says, “I was desperately looking for someone in Bengaluru who could make BM jewellery. I met Divya through her Facebook page. I was apprehensive at first, but when I opened the box I was awestruck by the two cute studs and pendant made from my BM. She had neatly packaged and wrapped the jewellery too.” Divya takes orders from mothers via her
Facebook page — Milky Way Breast Milk Jewelry — and over the phone. She needs a minimum of three weeks for one order, with an average of 10 to 15 orders a month. She also makes keepsakes from first teeth, locks and umbilical cords.