HYDERABAD: A visit to Singapore-based Aparna Das Sadhukan’s silver jewellery e-store is nothing short of landing on temptation island. The newly-launched shopninebythirty.com is a love letter to the five-year-old store, Nine By Thirty’s stunning selection of handcrafted silver. Often featuring vintage designs, the brand owes its unique peripatetic identity to its founder-designer, who has travelled widely to collect unique pieces like the Krsna pendant from Jaipur, which features the mythological story of Krishna and Kalia.
Sadhukan (a mass comm graduate from Symbiosis, Pune) shares her journey, “When I worked in advertising, I dreamt of owning the clichéd café-cum-bookstore that also curates silver pieces as I was always interested in design. Nine by Thirty had a rather serendipitous beginning when I chanced upon a silver smithing workshop at the Sydney Art School. A basic course gave me some idea on the technicalities of jewellery making and I soon had my very first customer from Bunbury, Australia.
Fast forward five years to the present and the 30-something continues to nurture her brand from Singapore, where her family relocated to from Sydney. “It is fantastic to exhibit in Singapore. It gives me such a high to see Singaporean Chinese buy my jhumkas,” she says, adding that for her one-of-a-kind pieces, she works with Indian and South-East Asian jewellers.
‘‘I adore antiques and raw gemstones; I pick up silver pieces on my travels. New designs are made in Jaipur and Indonesia,” she says.
The Shahabad (Karnataka) girl hopes to exhibit her work in Chennai soon. Her new collection of ‘Queen Soma’ earrings in bright tropical hues feature crochet work by Cambodian women. With a special selection of statement necklaces handcrafted by Sadhukan, from gemstones like raw peridot and Lapis Lazuli, in the inaugural online collection, she also plans to introduce rings and earrings for the festive season, all inspired by Rabindranath Tagore.