Kamyen Jewellery: The Creative Genius Behind The Designs
Over the years you have seen numerous creations from Kamyen Jewellery on my social media platforms. I have seen them over the past 8 years all around the world from Middle East to Europe and America and have always been in awe of their creativity. They excel in mixing and matching various gemstones, unique and never seen before gems and rare diamond shapes.
After many years of admiring their one of a kind jewellery, finally it was time to meet the genius behind all this creativity and elaborate designs.
A few weeks ago Tracey and I travelled to Mumbai, India where Kumud Hirawat, the Creative Designer of Kamyen resides. We were received with the warmest welcome to their house and later on the workshop. We had a chance to spend few days with Kumud and watching her in her element, doing her magic as well as trying on the latest Kamyen creations that haven’t been shown in public yet.
Originally from Jaipur, Rajesthan, Kumud’s upbringing was surrounded by gems and jewellery; she is the third generation of gemstone merchants in Jaipur. Being an artist or better to say a painter, she has creativity flowing in her blood and with her knowledge of gemstones and diamonds; she has the best vision when it comes to designing jewellery. After getting married, she moved with her husband to Antwerp, Belgium and then returned to India to start establishing Kamyen Jewellery with her three children; Pooja, Keshav & Karan.
Out of the three, Karan is the most similar to Kumud with an eye for design. Being a talented photographer, he sees and breathes design, and currently started a men’s collection for Kamyen with cufflinks, brooches and bracelets. Pooja and Keshav are heavily involved in the marketing and smooth running of the operations, while also sourcing stones and liaising with clients.
From left to right: Karan, Pooja, Tracey, Kumud, Bebe & Kashev
During our stay in Mumbai, we managed to see one of their workshops and had the opportunity to see Kumud’s interacting with craftsmen to bring her visions to life.
When asked her about her designing process, she answered that first she sees the sourced gemstones and then starts designing around their colour and shapes to enhance their natural beauty. Because of her family background in gemstones, she has a slightly different approach with rubies. She has family who actually cut rubies to the shape of her liking, therefore when it comes to designing pieces with rubies; she initially comes up with the design and then sources the rubies to the exact cut and shape of her design.
The family works well together, and everyone has to vote yes to every single design before it goes into production. Not every design makes it immediately to production- Pooja and Keshav usually have a more objective view, as they know the clientele and demographic best. Kumud is absolutely open to critics and believes that designing is an ever-evolving process, so if a design doesn’t get a yes, it goes back into redesigning process, finessing, and refining the design. This back and forth can take months to finally coming up with the perfect design that gets the approval of the whole family.
Every design is original, Kamyen never recreate any of the high jewellery designs, and as a result they have cultivated an exceptional reputation amongst connoisseurs, assuring them that their Kamyen piece is one of one and never to be repeated. Kumud’s understanding of art and her talented eyes in visualizing appealing designs is a great force in coming up with unique designs, she has a team of designers that she mentors and works with her in completing the designs, drawings, gouaches and CAD.
The workshop manager and craftsmen are all experienced jewelers with years of expertise and impeccable attention to details. While we were at the workshop, each was working on a specific section of a piece and it was an experience seeing them crafting every single part of each piece by hand and then assembles them together. All those elaborate designs were coming to life right in front of our eyes, with Kumud’s designs all over the workshop, you could totally feel her creative aura around and the admiration for her vision was obvious. Besides being an artist, she is a mother and backbone of the household, her maternal kindness and sense of family was palpable in her interacting with her designers and craftsmen.
Spending few days with Kumud and being involved in the whole operation was truly an eye opening experience in how much work goes into every single piece; from sourcing the stones, to vision, drawings and then production. We now have an even greater respect and appreciation for Kamyen pieces. Next time we are going to India, we have plans to take a journey with Kumud to Jaipur, Rajesthan and observe her stone sourcing, and take a deeper dive into her process.
We cannot wait to see and try on the finished pieces that we witnessed in the production, and look forward to viewing those pieces in November at Jewellery Arabia in Bahrain.
Until then enjoy the latest jewels of Kamyen on our social media platforms!
