Designing wearable art is embedded in her DNA. “My paternal grandmother’s family was from Rangoon (erstwhile Burma) where they traded in diamonds, rubies and emeralds. My grandfather was also a trader in precious stones, so in some ways, I have inherited their love for jewellery,” says jewellery designer Lara Morakhia as we settle down over a chat in her Mumbai studio.
Indian art and design forms Lara’s creative crucible, where she lets the designs brew. It is an instant marination of ideas, with her mind lending shape to her exhaustive insights.
Old coins, bits of silver, pearls, gold drops, bone, wood, leather, colourful beads: Lara visualises all these different, broken shapes, and pieces them cohesively to unify them. “It is my aim to craft universal appeal in each piece I design. Silver pieces, gold jadau, pearls and beads are roughly tied together by hand to create shapes that slowly morph into ear rings, rings, kadas and neckpieces. Diversity brings it all together,” she shares with the seasoned ease of a born artist.
Indian art threads the palpable and the tacit together to fuse in a novel form that woos you in each of her creations. Lara attributes her exhaustive insight into art, to her treasure trove of paintings. “I have a vast collection of artworks: it helps to relax my mind and enhances my creativity on a sublime level,” she says and adds, “I have never studied art but it is palpable in all my surroundings in the way I live or even when I look at any sculpture or painting… it is a very intuitive process.”
Shilpi Madan for Asian Age
Read the Full Interview