Ancient Indian craft of beadwork reimagined in modern furniture design.
Concept & Inspiration
This collection, titled “Manaka” (Hindi for “bead”) is a tribute to the long history of beadwork in Indian crafts. Indian beads have historically been featured as a jewellery and artisanal staple, tracing its origins in the Harappa civilization. While the Saurashtra and Kutch regions are most famously linked to beads due to their majestic use in elaborate jewellery, many other geographies/ sub-cultures have also embraced beads.
By integrating Indian beadwork into modern furniture design, we want to breathe new life into this hitherto forgotten practice, reinvigorating it for a contemporary audience while paying homage to its storied past.
We have taken metallic beads, a more modern variant, and have reimagined them as the core in our latest furniture line. While metallic beadwork has traditionally been applied to smaller pieces of jewellery like bracelets and armlets, we have taken a contemporary perspective and have created large metallic bead “sheets” to create furniture tops. Changed in proportions, the texture is much smoother and looks darker than what one would see in typical beadwork.
We have worked with multiple seasoned artisans to create these large bead “sheets” – none of them had worked with such large sizes for beadwork. Antique, handcrafted brass is used as the base to contrast textures from the closed-knit beads.
