How to store and clean kundan jewellery
Keep it dry, keep it separate and never soak it.
How a bridal set is made in our karkhana
Six people, twelve weeks and one piece of gold: the making of a rani haar.
Every piece begins with our chitera, who draws it to full size on paper. The drawing shows the outline of each stone and the meena pattern on the back, so the bride and her family can approve it before any gold is used.
The ghaarha then shapes the gold. Each section is cut, soldered and hollowed into small cups where the stones will sit. A rani haar may have more than a hundred of these.
Next comes the meenakar. The back of each section is engraved and filled with enamel colours ground from glass, then fired in a small kiln, one colour at a time, hardest first. A red and green meena back takes about two weeks.
The pieces are filled with lac to support the stones, and the kundansaz sets each polki by pressing gold foil around it with a fine steel tool. Finally the sections are strung with pearls and silk, and the piece is polished and weighed. Twelve weeks, start to finish, and six pairs of hands.
