A compilation like never before.....

Hello All,

Every once in a while, we feel challenged! And surprisingly, we welcome such opportunities. Challenges are an excellent time to feel isky about oneself. And they are the ideal time to convert a difficulty into a golden chance......it is all about perspective! Whenever we get an order from Preethi, our collective hearts take a leap! A leap of fear and a leap of faith...........fear because we know that whatever we knew so far is about to be put to test. And faith because we delve into the unknown.

Right from the nascent stages of paper jewellery development, we've had Preethi's unwavering support. She's trusted us where few others have! She's given us so much free-hand that our nearly aesthetic selves are willing to believe in angels guarding over us.........and we could pay no higher compliment to her.

In this order, we have a compilation of 3 completely 'untried' styles........

When we had picked up Naulakha, we had vague knowledge of painting (and securing) Tanjore on polymer clay. We knew about the difficulties of using red (and its cousin colours, orange, maroon, magenta) on polymer clay. What we did not know was how we were going to overcome this problem. After a great deal of brainstorming, we did figure the process out and it took two people two full days to get this piece working (that's nearly 40 work hours), apart from planning and testing, that took a few days before we even touched this piece. A systematic and detailed analysis of various components was done before this piece was made and well, the results of the thoroughness is for all to see :)

Now, if you've been following us, you'd know that we make a LOT of peacocks (many many more than we'd ever like to!). It so happens that most of these peacocks were made for Preethi! So, once her collection had peacocks in all fathomable shapes, sizes and techniques, it was a time to break off from the routine. What the break was going to be, we didn't know.......and it turned out to be Kerala Mural style painting. The "half-stuck" Swarovski pearl style was a first for us and we dare say we like it, a great deal too.....

And ah! The star of our innovation of late......

We have been practicing our wire weaving just to culminate to this moment where we can bring wire weaving together with polymer clay. The design began with the sunset colour blend in clay. Then we worked on the shape and size of the design so as to incorporate the wires. We didn’t intend it to look like a beetle , but more like a tulip :). When we brought the wires in, some hammered to give a slight aged look and some wrapped to give it strength, it ended up being very bugsy wugsy. Our first and fairly uncomplicated design with a strong string to give it an urbane look.   

And WHAT a colourful compilation it became when it finally headed off to Preethi!

Thank you for dropping by! 

Love, Art'zire

Tiniest inspiration - huge leap

Hello All,

As is very well known, we have been making quilled jhumkas for quite a while (3.5 years, to be precise). The quilled jhumka has had its evolution cycle, but we never ventured into polymer clay (dome shaped) jhumkas so far for two reasons, one, our aversion to overcrowded spaces (too many people were making them), two, every idea we got was just too easy/ordinary.

So, we waited, and we waited.......for a year and a half. Sometimes, tiniest of incidents can bring about sea changes in one's thoughts. Meeting ace artist Ajay Gulati , whose curator, Bhargavi is a personal friend, turned out to be that one stroke of inspiration we were waiting for............a tranquil evening spent admiring Ajay's paintings made a gazillion neural connections in our brains......and the result? The idea for polymer clay jhumka lurking in the corners of our minds came to the fore. It took a little while for us to get a concrete plan for executing it and when we did, we realized we were lacking in a few things needed for getting a desired effect. Almost an hour long discussion ensued and then, a frenzy of shopping! Whenever there is a new "line" being launched at Art'zire, the scene is similar.........ideas presented, fine-tuned, scrapped (if they don't meet our standards), fine-tuning some more and then, trials.......

Most times, we are able to foresee and rule out mistakes. Sometimes, we aren't that lucky. This time, a silicone mold we didn't realize was so big (until we finished the jhumka) came all the way from US (oh boy! Are we thankful for amazing friends or what????). We ruthlessly cut it up to meet our need and then resulted a jhumka (utilizing the first idea we got) which didn't quite make the cut. It looked gorgeous, but a tad bit too big........

Since the basic idea was in place, we fine-tuned the second trial onward as a breakneck pace. And in the third one, we finally made it! A jhumka that wasn't too big, had the right shape and the right weight :)

Now, since there was an order hanging about in the corner, we even got the opportunity to experiment within it. A neck-piece was a natural extension and this was one incidence when Art'zire Team rose to its full potential. One of the things we had been waiting to lay our hands on was jewellery tubes (so often used by a lot of jewellery makers in necklaces). They look oh-so-tempting, but then, they can't be customised to our needs. If you know how much we fuss over having things our way, using readymade metal tubes would be ruled out before it was even as much as uttered. Hence, we decided to break our heads with our own! And well, the OLD enemy - Symmetry!!!!!!

Speak to any hand-made jewellery maker and you'd hear tales of how nightmarish symmetry can be to execute. But the Team never succumbed to pessimism or to the hurdles that faced us. We happily (okay, not so happily, but with tons of effort!) jumped over them and here is the full set :) Art'zire Team does it yet again..............brainstorming till we have THAT one idea that not only impresses but inspires every single member..........

Once we had done the main parts, it was time for the rest of the material to complement our hard work. In such times, we rely on the innovation and beauty that's commonly called Swarovski ;) They never let us down and now, we are beginning to believe that we are the only ones in India who obsess so much over their pearls :D These pearls are just paint gorgeous and those crystals! There's a reason one takes the name Swarovski with a lot of respect :) They are a jewellery-designer's dream-come-true............and ours do, every single time we look at the box we have assigned for them.......

Stringing in Swarovskis, embedding some in the central pendant and voila! We are good to go!!!!

A special thanks to Suma, for her order and to Richa, for being that steady rock whose ideas and constructive criticism help us stay rooted.......and well, Bindu (like always), for being our shoulder to lean on...........for pretty much everything! Lots and lots of love..........

Thank you for reading through.......

- Art'zire Team

PS: We don't take kindly to copying of our designs. If you are inspired, please be, by all means. Just don't forget to mention that it's not your design (no thanks, we don't want too much credit!)........

Jiya dhadak dhadak jaaye

Hello Folks,

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It all started with a heartbeat! We were given a whole range of choices from chemistry molecules of Caffeine, Insulin, Heme, t-RNA ( Transfer Ribonucleic Acid). Having done the first three, at the t-RNA, we were a little handicapped by the intricacy of the design so we opted for another unusual one out of the odd 15 ideas that were presented to us - Electrocardiogram (ECG).
While doing a polymer clay workshop for a technique called 'Skinner blend', we deliberately chose these colours. The transition started from Wasabi Green into Jungle Green and finally, Black.


We had been itching to use our glow in the dark clay, and this presented the perfect opportunity. The glow in the dark comes from the phosphorescence property of this clay. The only challenge was glow in the dark came in only Sculpey 3, which if you have used polymer clay before, is an extremely soft clay. Using a scale, we approximately marked a reduced size graph, as in the reference image. and then plotted the sinus rhythm, all complete with a heart!!!



Then we faced our old enemy, Symmetry!!! When one is as easy the second one always becomes difficult when it has to be an exact mirror image. We managed that too! Now they are ready to dangle away in someone's ears soon!!!

Photography was a little bit tricky, to catch the exact glow of the clay! The principle of phosphorescence came in handy again - that is, the clay would continue to "glow" even after light source has been switched off. And it's just a matter of a fraction of a second, within which to take the photo. Using our expensive mobile phones, we managed to do that too! The Samsung S5 played the role of our Camera, and the iPhone 4S as a torch and then, we capitalize on that "one tiny slice of time" to show us the glowing heartbeat. In the end we got it just right, didn't we? 

2014 Begins!

Hello All,

This is a year we eagerly looked forward to! We start afresh, in a new place..........Bangalore!

The year is off to a great start honestly! A workshop always brings such unparalleled joy to us! We got to create some fantabulous pieces (and orders are raining!)...............thank you every single one of you, who believed in us. Yes, we are human, yes we committed errors. But we are human! We will learn, improve and make sure your experience with us is a personal and pleasant one!

Here are some of the highlights of Art'zire for the year 2014, so far! :)

And some snippets from our maiden workshop in Bangalore :)

Thank you everyone and we hope for encouragement in Future too :)

Looking forward to be of service 

Art'zire