Meenakari the art of applying vitreous enamel to a metal surface, fired at precise temperatures to produce colours of extraordinary depth and permanence is one of the most technically demanding crafts in the world's jewellery tradition. Jaipur is its pre-eminent home, and Sunita Shekhawat is its most gifted contemporary practitioner. Her jewellery does not merely feature meenakari it is a meditation on colour as a philosophical and aesthetic proposition.
Shekhawat's design philosophy is inseparable from the enamel itself. She works with master meenakari craftspeople whose knowledge of the process the specific temperatures, the layering of colours, the chemistry of metal and glass has been developed over generations. Her design contribution is to bring to this craft a contemporary aesthetic sensibility: compositions that reference Mughal miniature painting, Rajasthani folk art, and international fine jewellery design in equal measure. The result is work that is deeply traditional in its technique and entirely original in its expression. Sustainability, for Shekhawat, is the preservation of the craft: each commission that enters the market perpetuates the skills and the livelihoods of the meenakari community.
Sunita Shekhawat's collections are built around specific colour stories a summer collection might explore the chromatics of desert flowers; a winter collection, the blues and greens of Rajasthani architecture. Each piece is a composition in enamel colour, as considered as a painting. The gold settings are designed to frame and complement the enamel rather than compete with it; diamonds and coloured stones are used with restraint, their presence always in service of the enamel's primacy. Editorial features in Indian Vogue, Harper's Bazaar India, and international publications have recognised in Shekhawat's work a beauty that photographs with unusual power.
Sunita Shekhawat is the finest argument available for the proposition that India's craft traditions, in the right hands, are not heritage but currency not preservation but production. Her meenakari jewellery is among the most beautiful objects being made in India today, and among the most important acts of cultural stewardship in Indian luxury.
