Jain Spirit 2002 03 No 10

Author(s): Jain Spirit UK
Publisher: UK Young Jains

Page 33

ART & LITERATURE
DREAM TRADE
Alison Kent talks to Monica S. Shah about her jewellery designs,
which uphold a family tradition going back six generations
subdivisions: craftsmen who make the jewellery, cutters who cut the stones and traders who liaise between the customer and the craftsmen. Monica's father specialises in sapphires, especially the bigger sapphires. His trade has taken him all around the world. The traders instruct the craftsmen exactly how to mount the stones. To do this they need an intimate knowledge of jewellery design themselves, as Monica was to discover. As traders meet and liaise with the customer, they have to be adept at interpreting a customer's dream of a piece of jewellery and help make it become a reality. Traditionally, Monica's family have been the link between the customer and the craftsmen.
Monica herself came to the profession through her own creativity. "I have always had an inclination towards art," she says. "I saw it as a chance to express my creativity and support myself if need be. I look at jewellery as a form of self expression." As a child she was always painting, a skill which has helped her with designing jewellery. The jewellery she designs tends to be intricate, so she needs to draw detailed pictures to indicate the composition as well as show the textures she intends to create. Painting has been a crucial part of her training, "Painting has helped me in designing jewellery because I can put down on paper ideas of composition, structure and texture," she added.
Monica grew up in India and started her formal education with a BA in Business Studies at New Delhi University. In 1992, she got married and moved to England. She has always wanted to study jewellery design so she went to the City College in Manchester where she found the tutors very supportive. They explained that in order for her to be able to instruct the craftsmen to make her designs, it was essential to learn how a piece of jewellery was actually made. She would need to learn about the working mechanisms of a piece of jewellery. She was encouraged to do the City and Guilds course. For two years in full time training she learnt how to make jewellery and to set stones. She learnt the whole process from design right through to presentation, finishing and polishing.
Monica Shah at her bench at City College, Manchester
CEWELLERY CAN BE A WORK OF ART IN ITS OWN RIGHT. NOT merely a block of gold or a precious stone but a carefully
designed and intricately crafted work of art. Jewellery is an important element in the Jain tradition, especially weddings. But have you ever wondered how a piece of jewellery is designed and made? Monica Shah has created her own business in Stockport near Manchester, UK, which combines her creative flair for design with her family's long established involvement with the jewel trade.
For six generations Monica's family have been in the jewellery trade. Within the business there are different
32 Jain Spirit · March - May 2002 in Education international 201003