jewelry artisan

This wood batik jewelry box features a red background with a motif of elongated scrolls set on a diagonal called parang. This motif represents a knife, dagger, and blade, and in days gone by, its use was the exclusive property of the Javanese courts of Surakarta and Jogyakarta. Gunadi, a Javanese artisan, meticulously crafts the jewelry chest by hand with three drawers to keep things organized.

Indian artisan Siddique beautifully portrays rural life in this batik wall hanging. A village woman adorned in traditional attire and jewelry carries two pots of water on her head from the village well or maybe from the nearby riverside. She gracefully balances the pots on her head without spilling a drop. Rich colors in tones of red, sky blue, mustard yellow, beige, off white, peach, olive green and black are all used in the design, and help to create the feeling of heat and sun that characterizes life in India. The decorative piece is marked by multiple loops at the top for hanging on a rod, and black cotton borders help create a neat finish.

Rosy earth colours are captured in this bracelet from Honduras, featuring round ceramic beads with brown and pink batik patterns on a length of brown cord. Alessandra Foletti designs this adjustable bracelet, carrying on her family's tradition of jewellery crafting.

Incorporating the West Java motif of Megamendung, which consists of sharp, angular clouds reflecting Chinese and Indonesian influences, Balinese artisan Putu Putri creates these mesmerizing dangle earrings that tell the story of her home village and her family's generations of silversmithing. Working with 925 sterling silver, the artisan engraves the design by hand, then oxidizes the surface to produce a combination finish.

With their elegant simplicity, you'll find yourself reaching for these earrings often. Mexican artisan Alon Diller crafts the stud earrings from gleaming 950 Taxco silver, setting them with cabochons of natural turquoise.