It all began after the first lockdown. Dipinder Kohli then working as a textile designer with a private firm, returned to her home in Gurugram as her parents didn’t want her to stay alone in the pandemic.
She came back, and to kill time, took to surfing the Internet extensively. This is how she chanced upon resin art. A nature lover, Kohli had a huge collection of dried flowers, leaves and other botanicals. “I have been collecting and preserving such objects for many years; I kept these in between pages of all my books. I did not know what to do with them till I found out that I can preserve them for posterity using resin,” she says.
In time, Kohli decided to turn her collection of botanicals into jewellery pieces. “I made a few pendants using resin and dried flowers/leaves, which was a hit with family and friends. It motivated me to explore further. I began selling the items on my personal instagram account. As the response increased, I made a business account (Instagram: thedreamybotanist),” she adds. “The Dreamy Botanist was born from the desire to slow down, and seek comfort from nature. Nature teaches us how we can use our understanding of design to create and safeguard it and, in the process, also heal ourselves and this planet,” says Kohli.
Each of her pieces has a unique pattern since “each botanical gets pressed in a different way. It is a natural process with no human intervention”. In a bid to educate people about the wonders of nature, she documents every specimen.
Resin is an easy medium to work with, but it gives you a work window of just 45 minutes after which it begins drying up. Also weather conditions interfere with drying. “Resin work is done on sunny days — 11-12pm and 2-3pm are the best times to make the jewellery pieces as the direct rays of sun, dry and harden it quickly. Humidity will make resin leathery,” says Kohli, adding that the pieces must be kept in a clean environment while drying, otherwise dust particles can settle on them, which becomes a problem while cleaning.
Kohli uses bezels and silicon moulds to make her jewellery. Bezels come with hoops, and silicon moulds have holes for one to run through a silver/gold chain or a leather chord. “The young crowd likes leather chords as these come in different colours,” she says. “I am trying out eco-printing so that I can make handmade fabric jewellery as well,” says Kohli, who wants to make décor and utility items like coasters, boxes, and lamps using botanicals.