Riti jewellery inspired by Earth

Designers and artists have a thing for “inspirations”. Since a variety of images, objects, phenomena around us inspire us, we find it hard to put a finger on what exactly our inspiration is. But still, we need it. We need to be constantly stimulated in order to solicit creative responses. So what is the best source of stimuli for a designer? In my opinion, it would be nature or Earth.  Our Earth has a million variations in itself in terms of its ecosystems. It includes in itself every possible sound, taste, texture (for touch), smell and of course sights. For example, the crisp clean mountain air, the colours, and the smell of flowers, forests of trees and their multitude of texture. They all continuously motivate and stimulate design. In this post, I would like to share with you Riti jewellery inspired by Earth.

Riti jewellery inspired by Earth

Usually, when people talk about nature being their inspiration, they choose a particular theme like flora, mountains, rivers, or a geographical area. I too have done that in the past. However, for Riti, I wanted to see if I can take descriptions of Earth on the whole from written texts and work on it.  In Atharva Veda, an ancient Indian literature rūpa (form and colour), rasa (taste), gandha (scent) and sparśa (touch) are mentioned as attributes of the Earth. Riti jewellery inspired by Earth is made up of all these elements. While I do not have a link to the Translated Veda texts, You can find a paper on Sankrit Gandha by Minoru Hara here.

Vibhuti

My mother upon reading the Bhagavad Gita in her sloka class was completely enamoured by the concept of Vibhuti. No, I am not talking about the sacred ash of Hindus, also referred to as Vibhuti. I am talking about Leela (playful) Vibhuti or physical universe where the word Vibhuti refers to divine wealth or manifestation of God (Vishnu) as nature.

Every shoot and leaf that sprouts, every drop of water in the rivers and oceans all remind us of the magnificence of the creation and the creator. This blue, green and gold necklace is symbolic of this creation. I have tried to depict an aerial view of the earth. The blue and green depict the water and forest cover respectively. The lampwork and fabric beads depict flora.

Instead of using brown which would dull the necklace, I have used bronze and gold to represent land. This represents the saying “If you work hard on the land, you will reap wealth. Ofcourse, what is nature without an animal being included? So I chose to include a thinking animal – a Woman, by using an embossed bezel. This necklace is sold.

Vasudha

Vasudha means of the Earth or belonging to the Earth. Mother Earth is the ultimate producer of wealth. She only requires our patience, good intent and perseverance to reward us with prosperity. Keeping this in mind, I have created another abstract representation of Earth using blue, green, copper and gold. Since the focus is on the land, colours like auspicious yellow and metallic are given prominence.  This necklace is sold.

In the vasudha necklace, I have used two types of stimuli. One is touch which corresponds to the Earth and the second is a social stimulus of community bonding. The Sanskrit Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम) means that the world is one family. The need to bond with our peers is what makes a country a nation.

Sugandha

Sugandha means fragrance or scent – a good smell literally. Above all, Gandha or scent is attributed to the Earth. In this necklace I have tried to represent three types of fragrances. One is fruit/citrus scent, the second is a floral scent and the third is the spicy-earthy scent. The colours orange, pink and gray-brown represent these categories of fragrance. This necklace is for sale.

Rupa

Rupa refers to all physical attributes of an object like shape and form, colour and texture. In this necklace I have once again borrowed floral aspects of nature and abstracted it. Apart from vines and floral swirls you could also see a rosebud in the pendant. This necklace is sold.

While I started exploring abstract concepts of nature particularly Earth, I ended up doing abstraction of the form With that we come the end of the this post. However, I have some more Riti Jewellery to show you that is a natural continuation of Rupa or Form. I meet you again on Badi Diwali day with those pieces. Until then, Read about how I manipulated Sparsh(touch), Vasana (smell) and Drishti (sight) in my first post of Riti by Sayuri – collection of festive jewellery.

Wishing everyone a Happy and Green Diwali in advance. Celebrate Diwali with beautifully recycled, re-purposed and upcycled objects like Riti Jewellery to do your bit for the Earth.