14th Blog anniversary and Ivory

As I write this post commemorating 14 years of starting this blog and loving every minute of it, I deeply thank all of you readers for your encouragement and support. This blog has lead me to so many opportunities in my life. Whether it is writing professionally, teaching design, teaching writing, jewellery research or creating courses to teach writing about lifestyle and fashion, this blog has been my testing ground for all these endeavors.

About me

Here is a little bit about me for those of you who are new here. I am a designer and a design educator with a background in Fashion. I have also been holding an administrative position for the past two years and learning everyday by duelling challenges. A I child I loved to draw and paint, a trait that I both inherited from my mother, not to mention that I was trained by her. While I won my fair share of prizes, I never mastered any one medium or technique. I simply never saw any point in becoming a specialist. I loved all mediums and wanted to use them all to ‘communicate my ideas.’ I became a mixed media artist.

While I loved jewellery as a child, learning to make some was beyond my situation. If not for an opportunity to help out a friend at a college fair, I would have never learned to bead. That exhibition truly changed my life. I founded Sayuri in 2008 as a brand that clothing, jewellery and decor items and in 2011 my focus shifted to making only jewellery.

I believe that people and the objects that they wear are inexplicably bound together, where the relationship between the material and social depend on the context. Therefore, I wanted to learn about such contexts – be it historical, visual, personal or social. The more I learned, the more I wrote on this blog which I named in 2010 as Jewels of Sayuri.  I have written around 980 blogposts till date and deleted nearly 140 of them during various blog migrations.

14th Anniversary and Ivory

Since ivory is the European 14th anniversary gift, here are some facts about the material. Ivory primarily comes from the tusks of elephants. For a millennia, it has been prized for its beauty and durability with uses ranging from decorative art and jewellery to items like tools and musical instruments. It is a dense material but smooth enough to carve resulting in several pieces of stunning sculptures, furniture, personal objects and decor objects for centuries.

Indian jewellery with Ivory

Ivory was considered a symbol of luxury, status, and refinement. It was worn by royalty, aristocrats, and affluent individuals to showcase their wealth and taste. Gold pendants resembling the tiger’s claw – Puli nagam, wore by wealthy men, would often feature ivory instead of an actual claw. Chooda Bangles made of ivory used to be a part of the wedding trousseau in North western India. In the present the chooda is made using plastic or resin. Ornamented with gold and gemstones, ivory kada bangles sometimes had animal head terminals. Ivory beads were commonly used in necklaces, bracelets, and earrings. These beads would be adorned with carvings of intricate patterns. Similarly, ivory pendants featuring miniature carvings or inlay work were popular.

Ivory colonial Picture jewellery

During the British colonial rule in India, ivory was commonly used as a base for miniature paintings. They painted Mughal miniatures, images of the Indian countryside, portraits of British officials and dignitaries, and scenes depicting British colonial life in India.

Ban

The demand for ivory has led to extensive poaching of elephants resulting in significant declines in their populations. This has prompted widespread conservation efforts and international regulations aimed at curbing the illegal ivory trade. Several countries, including India have banned the sale of ivory tusks and products to protect vulnerable wildlife populations. It is legal to own and wear antique ivory inherited from your ancestors. However, in India, it shouldn’t have been bought after 1972 when the ban first came into existence.

Despite the best efforts of the Indian government, the menace of inhumane illegal ivory trade still exists, as the rarity of the material puts its market value in crores. Watch the trailer of the new series Pacher which is filmed around killing of elephants for the ivory trade.

When the ivory carving industry was formally shut down in India, the carvers shifted to carving bone to keep alive the aesthetics of the form and their livelihood. Other alternatives to ivory include plastics such as Bakelite and celluloid and epoxy resin.

I hope you find it interesting

Cheers