KOCHI: Flashy gold and silver pieces of jewellery have become a thing of the past. Now, many are moving onto the new fad micro jewellery. Made out of resin at pocket-friendly prices, the accessories look trendy and minimal and on top of it all, they are colourful. The fun and chic-looking trinkets have become the millennials favourite fashion statement.
It’s the love for such simple resin jewellery and nature that attracted Kochi-native Ananya K S to create her designs. She names it botanical jewellery. She uses flora and fauna, including mushrooms, to create art in fashion.
She preserves small and cute polished seashells, delicate tiny mushrooms from her backyards, flower petals and green ferns inside pendants. Her ethereal designs stand out due to the uniqueness based on autumn and marine themes.
Her art
Her botanical jewellery also helps in preserving memories. For those who wish not to say goodbye to the beautiful blooms, especially from wedding bouquets, Ananya is a huge help. She believes her jewellery pieces are a way to capture fleeting moments in nature and life.
“Flowers have a short lifespan. They wilt quickly and even dried petals become extremely fragile. Preserving the natural beauty of the flowers is also a way to keep memories safe. That said, apart from the special flowers sent by clients, I source the native flowers from my garden in my creations. One of my teachers, who has many beautiful blooms in her courtyard, lets me pick flowers for the resin art,” she says.
She makes dried flowers using silica gel and her favourite flowers — aster, daisies, euphorbia, lavender, baby’s breath, purple pansies, hydrangea, roses and so on. Sometimes she also sources botanical elements from online marketplaces.
But these days, what worries her is the monsoon rain which has made it difficult to source mushrooms — one of her most popular designs. She dries the little mushrooms carefully in silica gel before locking them in resin patterns inside the silicone moulds.
The moisture content in the atmosphere causes severe damage to the designs if not dried properly, reminds Ananya. “The substance could develop small fogginess inside the resin during the rainy season,” says Ananya, who also designs clocks, paperweights, name plates and other interior decorations using resin.
The beginning
Ananya tested out her creative genes during the first wave of the pandemic. She started as a doodle artist but later found her niche in resin jewellery. “My cousin introduced me to resin art. Many resin accessories with flowers are available now. So, I tried creating my designs with marine elements such as sea shells and then mushrooms,” she says. Ananya’s tryst with resin jewellery started with key chains and ended up in earrings, pendants, bracelets and rings. These pretty trinkets go well with casual wear and can be worn as statement pieces, especially the rings and bracelets, with party outfits,” says the young designer.
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