Joy of Custom Gold and Pearl Jewellery

My sister-in-law and I had a couple of gold pendants and a pearl string that we had bought over the years. It was lying as is in the closet.

So this time when I came to Mumbai for 10 days, I made the most of the free evenings to visit a couple of stores and make a necklace. The pendant is a berry shaped round bead which is a style shared by all my cousins. All my cousins have one such bead set in their mangalsutra – symbolizing the inseparable bond between a husband and a wife. Its a signature family style.

Initially I thought of wearing it on black leather string and even pinned a few styles that were tribal rather than traditional. But I didn’t quiet like them. And the bead was tucked away in the corner.

This time, I decided to go mainstream and made it into a traditional mangalsutra which I can wear more often. My SIL had checked out a few places earlier and we decided to get a pattern made in Vaman Hari Pethe – a quintessential Maharashtrian jeweler.

Once there, we were greeted with a wall full of designs. We mixed and matched the string or ‘saar’  with the bead. Some were chunkier and others light, some were long, others short, some had more gold beads and others had more gold. Some had chain styles interlaced and others were plain. We tried to go for a contemporary pattern and within half an hour we had my new mangalsutra ready.

I have been sporting it for couple of days now  and am loving it!

Thrilled with our success with gold shopping, last evening, we went to Magic Mirror in Matunga for some pearl jewellery. My SIL has pearls that have been lying unused and we went to check out what could be made out of it. 

Again, we were there for couple of hours, trying out various combinations and patterns. They showed us patterns that are in trend now and sets they had made for other clients.

Finally, after  funneled it down to a few combinations.

 

We were loving the floral pendants when my SIL saw the choker set in white minakari. She was smitten. It was something she was sure to use. Getting a custom-made set with her pearls or buying  a ready-made set. We were in a big dilemma.

So we did what we do best when in such situation. We stepped away for a few minutes and focused on something else.As we were in Matunga, a Mumbai suburb with strong Tamil presence, we stocked up on sambhar and rasam powder, got a South Indian style filter coffee set, some flowers and then decided to check out a few other places before committing to this design.

The pearls customization/shopping continues, while I enjoy my new mangalsutra!