She is a perfect blend of a rooted Rajput who was brought up as an independent-minded, career-oriented and cosmopolitan woman. Someone who grew up between colonial Kolkata and gracious Jaipur, only to get married in the power capital of New Delhi which has been a home for her for over thirty years. Pushpita Singh is a jewellery designer who wears many hats as the author of a book on Rajput cooking, an Ikebana enthusiast, a great mother and a perfect wife of one of the most respected art curators, a writer, columnist and editor Kishore Singh.
Hailing from Kharwa, the seat of an erstwhile princely state in Rajasthan, she has gone through many career avatars. As a publicist, vintage art and artisanal craft dealer, writer and now jewellery designer. It all began with her playing creative truant with the art of stringing which she elevated to a form of art. In her hands, many a coloured, semi-precious beads and pearls came together as she strung them in the most luscious and creative style. Adding a lapis lazuli to a square, and bevelled black onyx, combining rose quartz with a row of baroque pearls and adding a stunning silver pendant to a series of rock rubies, she created jewels that delighted the expats and the modern dressers who always looked for ways to smarten up their power suits or basic white shirts. Pushpita says, “I would get inspired by the most interesting things like a tutti frutti cupcake or the many shades of a winter garden while stringing.”
Bikaner being home to her in-laws, she slowly progressed to precious jewels and discovered some remarkable kaarigars with whom Pushpita tried to, “recreate the typical gold and polki ornaments worn by the Rajput ladies: Aad that adds such a sense of regalia to the slender neck of the bride, hath phool, maang tika and bold arsi ring worn by the women of Rajasthan”.
However, it is in the world of Victorian jewels that she eventually found her true calling. “Indian nobles loved Victorian jewellery: The style of setting uncut diamonds and precious stones on understated silver with a rich gold polish at the back. They wanted their diamonds to be precious but not sparkle too much.” And this is the look she does such stunning justice to. Be it crafting single rows of solid uncut diamonds with stunning drops in emeralds and rubies attached to them, crafting easy to wear ear studs that have a precious pearl added or rustling up a whole line of bangles and bracelets that can blend into Indian and western dressing.
“These are pieces every working woman can wear and afford with ease and it’s a style of ornamentation I identify with,” concludes Pushpita.
