Razia Kunj Art and Facts collection of bespoke jewellery is the culmination of a series of experiments with shrinking the canvas where art meets fashion.
Brand Razia Kunj
Why must art only be hung up in art galleries?
Why must the finest graphic design be enshrined only within the walls of museums and temples?
Why must street art only be on the roads?
Art and Facts stands at the crossroads of art and everyday life. Razia’s intention is to take art from the walls of galleries and temples, from the pages of Indian folklore, from dance forms and tribal art, from forgotten nooks and crannies of rural India and hand it to a woman as a form of adornment. So a Krishna can be playing a Basuri right under your ears, as an earring, while the doors of a Haveli open to the world in the form of a necklace. She does not believe in mass manufacturing. So, each jewellery line is individually designed by her, hand painted and crafted by her team of artists.
Every collection of Art and Fact is an attempt to shrink the canvas, to make the art of India a personal expression for its women.
Razia Kunj
I don’t design jewellery. I design stories.
Stories of my land, my people, its folk lore, traditions, mythology, art, craft, dance and all the things that make up an idea called India. And this is my story.
When my daughter was six years old, she had to perform Dandiya dance in school and I had to dress her up. I got her a beautiful Chaniya Choli but forgot about the jewellery completely. It was too late to go and purchase anything. I promised my daughter that when she wakes up for school in the morning I will find something suitable for her from my jewellery box. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anything suitable for a six-year old in there.
Incidentally, at that time there was some carpentry work going on in my house. I saw some pieces of wood lying around the house. I collected some, painted it and stuck some sequins and mirrors, tied it with some beads and thread that I had in my craft cupboard. And a beautiful piece of jewellery was ready for my daughter. She was thrilled to bits to see her new and unique piece of jewellery.
That was the birth of this idea. 10 years ago.
I got so fascinated and excited thatI went and purchased some carpentry materials and started experimenting with new designs using the same medium. It was very exciting and satisfying painting each piece of jewellery, crafting it, beading it since I have always been a person who likes to paint and work with my hands.
Around the same time I started my own advertising agency,thought blurb, with my husband, Vinod Kunj. Now my daughter is 17years old and my agency has successfully completed nine years.
Meanwhile, my discovery went through its own evolutionary process. I started gravitating towards the art of adornment. There were a few questions that kept popping up in my head that I just had to resolve.
Why must art only be hung up in art galleries?
Why must great design be enshrined only within the walls of museums and temples?
Why must street art only be on the roads?
My designstake art from the walls of galleries and temples, from the pages of Indian folklore, from dance forms and tribal art, from forgotten nook and crannies of rural India and hand it to a woman as a form of adornment. So a Krishna can be playing a Basuri right under your ears, as an earring, while the doors of a Haveli open to the world in the form of a necklace.
My inspiration also comes from everything that exists around me. What I feel, what I touch and what I have seen in the past, or experienced, and the effect it has had or created on me. I believe art is just a transformation of an ordinary experience into an extraordinary one. You just transform that feeling into another form. In that process consciously or sub-consciously you create something new, something beautiful.
Jewellery just happens to be the medium of expression for me. That’s why more than jewellery I like to call it wearable art.
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