It’s a cosmic fantasy, really. As myriad gleaming, delicate gold chains ladder up, wreathed in sparkling stars and dainty drops, clasping your fore and smallest fingers in a fine, adjustable loops with a gold bar to wrap it up — the ‘scintillation ring’ from jewellery designer Vanraj Zaveri’s Aphelion collection is a virtual showstopper. One of a cornucopia of 36 designs in light, 18-carat hallmarked gold.
Diamonds are in his DNA, being the great grandson of Shrikant Zaveri who founded Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri & Sons 150 years ago, but he decided to move away from the past and look into the future. “After a certain point, the journey with the family brand became a little limiting for me and I wanted to break out of the mould. I believe jewellery is meant to be worn and celebrated, not to be relegated to safe deposit lockers. That is how my brand Zaavorr was born,” says Vanraj, a Gemological Institute of America alumnus who launched this brand in 2019.
His first collection, Aphelion—the point in the orbit of a planet, asteroid or comet at which it is furthest from the sun—is inspired by the moon and stars. A striking array of rings, pendants, earrings, necklaces hand and body harnesses, all laced with precious and semi-precious stones such as tiny diamonds, white quartz, aquamarines and amethysts, as opposed to the usual emeralds, rubies and pearls of the parent brand.
The sheer versatility and textural interplay of each design-forward piece stuns. Imagining what the crater clad surface of the moon would look like, Vanraj has used cuttlefish bone to carve into. “This idea came about during one of our deep sea diving trips,” he says, of his annual holiday with his fashion designer wife, Kresha Bajaj, both of whom are avid scuba divers. Due to its organic origin, the cuttlebone has growth rings, like wood grain.
This distinctive “fingerprint” made with the technique of casting with cuttlefish bone entirely by hand achieved the look of various layers to create an uneven surface like the moon. And as each cuttlefish bone is different from the other, Vanraj had to carve into 20-25 bones to get the perfect texture for each piece. Incidentally, being an underwater conservationist, he also made sure the cuttlebones used were discarded by fishmongers.