Coming next in the series of floral bridal jewellery sets, is a set created using rose and tuberose flowers. Originally meant to be a jasmine set, the design for this Tuberose jewellery set was changed so many times that I have lost track of them.
Often costumes and jewellery used in hit movies make a huge impact on the minds of the people, prompting them to look for identical fashions, when it comes to styling themselves. This “self designer” phenomena happens not only when a movie releases but also after it gets aired on popular TV channels. One such movie that brought flower jewellery into focus is Bahubali – A Tamil/Telugu a blockbuster fictional historic movie of epic proportions) where the female lead (Tamannah) wears an elaborate set in a romantic dream sequence duet song “Pachai thee neeyadha” (see video below). Another song from this movie that is worth watching in the jewelry context is Manohari which has brought back silver ethnic jewelry in a big way.
Naturally I got a lot of queries to make such sets but I couldnt make them, simply because I just didnt know how (Believe me I am planning to remedy this by learning it very soon). But this one person wouldnt take no for an answer. She wanted a white and red set, preferably with jasmine for her soon to be sister-in-law and we brainstormed so many different way in which we could do it weeks ahead of the function. Then it rained.
There was hardly any good jasmine available for weeks and what was available was extremely expensive. To add to that, the designs we discussed required the flowers remain as buds but the damn jasmine kept blooming everytime I tried experimenting with it. Here is one such experiment, my instagram followers would have seen it way back in December
Compared to the ones worn in the video this naturally sucked and after contacting a few learned folks I realised that the flower used is not Jasmine (Malli poo) but Wax flower (moon beam flower) also know as Nandiavattai in tamil or Chandini in Hindi. Having grown up, caring for these Nandiyavattai plants (or rather trees) till I was 18, and seeing the flower bloom endlessly I felt like a fool; how could I not have recognised it? Was there a big portion of my past that I had forgotton to help me transition into city life? The even bigger question (at that moment) was where do I find it in Chennai?
I was told that it was unavailable in Chennai, had to come from Erode, had a minimum order quantity and costs almost as much as jasmine 🙁 I was super frustrated for I remember these flowers always blooming in excess and we not knowing what to do with it. They were never worn by women and was only used as an offering to the Gods. The idea of using the buds of the flower never even struck us then.
As I was talking about all this to an expert from the field, she suggested that I try using Tuberose or Sampanghi (also called Rajnigandha) which is generally used to create scents or temple garlands. With time running out, I pitched a new look and a different design idea to the bride who thankfully accepted it and this is what I made – a set with tuberose and red rose buds consisting of a necklace, earrings, maang tikka and a haath phool.
My parents kept looking at me in a weird way while I was making the set. I guess I must have made quite a scene sitting in my couch, needle and thread in hand, surrounded by bags of tuberose, looking intently, experimenting with patterns, checking them out in the mirror every few minutes and talking to myself in the process – the things we do in the name of design!!
The last picture is the result of applying makeup at midnight (yes, the very same tiring night I made the set and after many hours of teaching) and trying to take a selfie with the jewelry so you guys could actually see how it looks on a person. Not the greatest picture of mine, but here it is.
Whew, I have finally completed typing this post after letting it languish in my dashboard for weeks. There are days when I am just unable to write – my brain is too tired to put words into sentences and January has had far too many of such days. I just hope that I get my writing mojo back.
I hope you found it interesting
Cheers
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