Imagine you saw something and you instantly liked it. You feel a strong connection with it, and your heart gets filled with love and admiration. It could be anything—that favorite dish of yours only your mother knew how to cook, or a piece of art, a statue or even monuments and buildings. A lot of times you cannot describe the feeling. But, you want to have a piece of that feeling to stay with you always, to cherish and be reminded of the beauty that the world has to offer.

This story is about one such incident that happened with one of our customers. Shruti Devi  is the author of  Deep Wood Trance – Fiction (Published in 2017 by Writers Workshop) and her latest book, Earth Republic: Chatter from the Capital’s Cauldron (and Beyond) launched in March 2018. Aside from being an author, she is also a hard-working Legal Analyst, Political Worker and a Grassroots Activist.

As someone who wears so many hats, it’s not very difficult to understand that she rarely finds time and resources to indulge in buying jewellery.

However, she has a deep interest in architectural heritage, partly due to the fact that she dwells in her family’s privately-owned fort in Kurupam, A village three hours away from Visakhapatnam.

Although, Shruti Devi doesn’t believe in building non-essential concrete structures, the fort, which is her place of residence, has played a crucial role in developing her sense of historical duty and rights-based politics.

In her keen attempt to conserve the architectural heritage of this fort, and our country and planet, and create collective memory related to it, she found herself attracted to the idea of creating souvenirs. She thinks this is a great way to not only honor the richness of art and history but also as a gateway to introduce the symbolism to the world.

Photo Of The Historical Fort

The architecture and construction of the fort she resides in, and especially the design on the double-helix open air dual staircases which have been close to her heart since her childhood, caught her attention. as she ascended the steps one winter evening to photograph passing meteor showers, she instantly knew what her next souvenir would portray.

It would be the design from the stairs! But, how would she do it? And what would she turn it into? A table piece was going to be no good. It had to be something that she could carry with her anywhere she went. She thought jewellery was the best option.

The Design Of The Staircase

Since, we live in the age of internet, all she had to do was surf the web for the correct site. and voila! AuGrav seemed to meet the highest standards and her expectations (she’s written a piece on ethical jewelry where she recognizes the investigative limitations of a consumer, but with some pointers for regulators) as she learnt that we design all kinds of personalized jewellery, including designs suggested by our customers.

She approached AuGrav asking if we could design a pair of earrings for her, taking inspiration from this marvelous piece of art. We told her this is exactly what we’re good at. And we got to work. Here’s how it all happened…

First, the Brainstorming

Shruti Devi shared with us the picture of the stairs she was referring to. It was quite a beautiful intricate design, and we were full of admiration for the artists who had designed it. She went a step further and drew a pen-paper sketch for us, to share her vision of the pair of earrings she was looking for. This is what it looked like.

Handsketch Shared By Shruti.

The sketch gave us a better understanding of what she had in her mind, and made our job a lot easier. Now, the only thing remained was the execution bit. While we have fulfilled similar requests from customers in the past, where we made jewellery based on the designs suggested by them.

Every single time we do this, the whole process is equally exciting for us, if not more. We guess, it’s partly because we are too eager to bring someone’s imagination to life and couldn’t wait to see their reaction. And in this case, it was even more special, because this was a tribute to the architectural and cultural heritage of our country.

The Process and 3D Sketching

After analyzing the sketch, we got to designing. After a few attempts, we were happy with a design that we came up with. The 3D sketch of the same was created and shared with her.

We always get approval from our customers on the 3D sketches of our designs before manufacturing, as it gives a clear idea to customers as to how the piece of jewellery would look.

3D Design Of The Jewellery

They can check aspects such as the thickness of the metal, stones/gems, and of course, the design on the whole. The sketch we shared was approved by Shruti Devi, which meant the earrings would now go into production.

The Final Product

Much to her delight, the final product turned out to be perfect. The earrings were made in yellow gold with diamonds placed at its neatly cut edges, elevating its exquisiteness. The combination of diamonds and gold was our way of achieving a fine balance between cultural heritage and contemporary design.

And this is the best thing about personalized jewellery, you can take inspiration from anywhere and add your own twist to make it even more special and unique. That’s the final product for you…

Final Design Of The Jewellery

Why go for personalized jewellery inspired by architectural heritage?

We all have the opportunity to discover and interpret who we are, where we come from and what we stand for. Our history, our heritage is a major part of how we are defined; integrating these in something as basic as jewellery can help leverage Indian heritage around the world.

Traditional jewellery and custom-made architecture-inspired jewellery is climbing up the charts in terms of popularity, as well. More and more people are opting for these.

These jewellery pieces don’t just reflect your interest in preserving your roots and heritage, but also exhibit a raw and innate sense of aesthetic. People who choose to wear them can be classified as confident and chic, but more importantly are those who respect our heritage.

Even cults from the Indian history took inspiration from Indian heritage. Amer’s princess and Emperor Akbar’s wife Jodha Bai was a fashion cult. Jodha Bai used to wear ornate jewellery which was heavily inspired from historical facts and figures which later became global influences. We witnessed something similar in the recently released Bollywood movie Padmaavat, and looking at which, we think the queen would have made quite a fashion diva. Rani Padmini, also known as Padmavati of Mewar (Queen of Mewar) was known to wear jewellery and clothes that were inspired from the inlays and carvings of the Mewar fort.

Not just architecture, inspiration can be all around…

While architecture can be a great source of inspiration, the world of personalized jewellery is not just restricted to architectural inspiration.

If you have anything that is worthy of treasuring, whether it is something that was passed on to you by your Grandmother, something that is of utmost importance to you, or that has sentimental value attached to it, you can convert it into jewellery, make it a part of you, forever.

Getting personalized jewellery made is easier than you think!

Customizing jewellery may seem like a difficult task at the outset, but trust us, when we say that it’s not.

Most of our customers get their personalized jewellery delivered to their doorstep, with just having to make a couple of phone calls/WhatsApp chats.

That’s all. You can get involved in the process as much as you want or not, based on your availability and convenience, and before you know it, your custom jewellery would be delivered to you right where you are.

When everyone in the world is trying to fit in, be someone who stands out. Personalized jewellery is a fantastic way of not just conserving and respecting something you love, but also imbibing it into your own personality!

Note: For More Details About The Fort Mentioned In The Article, Click Here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurupam