Chithiram is a collection, actually a project that has been my complete focus for the whole of August. It all started when a creative production company contacted me to create a collection (with a wow factor) that could be showcased as a part of TLC’s Oh my gold Show!!
Chithiram – Art to Wear
After a lot of brainstorming from their end, They suggested that I could use paintings with recycled objects to create a collection. Thus was born Chithiram – A collection of art to wear jewelry that portrayed Raja Ravi Verma’s paintings on found objects.. It seemed very easy in the beginning for I had made a resin collection based on art/paintings before. However, as I got into it I realised what mammoth task it was.
The Process – materials and Images
Preparing the found objects to go with such a theme took maximum time. Firstly, the collection of obje cts that could be used- I broke all my sunglasses, hunted all the draws in the house for mini bottles, soda cans, paper clips little odds and ends that could be used. Bought some stuff like safety pins, chains, pearls to go along with it. My chief objective was to make every piece wearable and every piece unique.Then came the hunt for right images. Initially I was really scared of the copyright issues, but then research proved that these images were in the free domain and I was relieved.
Once I got the items and images the next step was the putting together of both…and ornamentation. My house (esp my dining table) looked liked a war field during those days. My days were filled with lines like…”Does this really require bling?, where is the second bottle of polish, I saw a ball chain somewhere in that green plastic bag underneath the white cover which is behind the sketchbook next to the pink cushion, but I cant find it now…..” and so on. It was hilarious and frustrating at the same time.
Protecting the objects from dust as they were drying was another huge issue as my house gets really dusty due to all the construction going around. Finally making sure that none of them broke or stuck to each other was critical so (ironically) I put my mom in charge of that.
Shoot and Exhibition planning
The shoot was planned at Sarwaa, a beautiful lifestyle store at Trivandrum. A week before the shoot, the store owner suggested that we could do an exhibition there for here customers. It seemed like an wonderful idea but I only had around 50 pieces (incl other stuff) with me. So in the chaotic last couple of days I made around 20 new pieces, photographed and packed the mall. Pricing became a big joke and I really didn’t have time to do it and assigned random numbers. There were many confusions in between reg the location, whether it would be Chennai or Trivadrum, adding to the confusion.
So then what happened finally…??? It was a big roller coaster to say the least. Stay tuned for the part 2 of this journey. Coming up soon!!
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