THE FOUNDER/artist

Hello! My name is Subhadra Lakshmanan and I am the founder/artist of Mrinmayee - Born From The Earth which I started quite serendipitously. I live with my husband and 14 year old son in Limerick located in breathtakingly beautiful Ireland.

I'm a Mechanical/Materials engineer major by education but a hard core creative by profession. My undying love for everything silver is what drives me to create pieces that are inspired by the tribes of the world and are yet completely Indian at heart. A one-woman team, I design and handcraft jewellery in my home studio where I combine silver and semi-precious gemstones to form one-of-a-kind pieces for my brand.

I have always loved the arts – music, dance, painting, pottery, sculptures, jewelry, you name it. But what really stuck with me were jewelry and painting oil colours on canvas from a very young age. I enjoy every moment of indulging in them. When I am not working, you can find me blissfully lost in the harmonious sounds of instrumental music, enjoying a performance of classical dance, catching up on the latest movies or reading my favorite authors - Jhumpa Lahiri and Jeffrey Archer.

MY BRAND STORY

The Inspiration

The main inspiration behind Mrinmayee - Born From The Earth is my paternal grandmother. She was a lady way ahead of her times. She absolutely loved and adored jewelry, particularly silver and I guess she passed on her passion to me both in the genes and in inspiration.

In a country where we live and breathe gold, she always begged to differ and bought me my first pair of silver earrings when I was 8 years old. I developed immense interest in collecting one-of-a-kind earrings and bangles. I got particularly drawn to silver due to its neutral effect on any kind of attire. It just seemed to match every dress I wore, immaterial of the colour, pattern or texture. I had always noticed the brilliance of gemstones (particularly semi-precious) in gold jewellery but felt they needed a better companion to stand-out. What more, when I started collecting semi-precious gemstone jewellery that had been paired with silver I discovered the possibilities and varieties were endless!

I have been very content curating jewellery for my personal collection for more than 25 years now. I was only happy researching and reading about various materials (being a Materials Engineer myself!) and their jewellery making techniques until I came to a situation where I needed to find some nice thank you gifts for my little one’s play school teachers. I decided to give it a personal touch by making earrings for them and thus embarked on my first journey towards jewellery making.

It then progressed towards making small necklace-earring-sets as birthday/wedding gifts for my husband’s colleagues and friends around here. At one time my friends and family suggested making pieces to sell exclusively and I put off their idea as I never saw myself as a jewellery maker, but I just couldn’t resist making more and more pieces as nothing else made me more content and happy. So here I am, doing something I never imagined I would do but can’t stop now because I’m so passionate about it!

The Creative Process

When I first started, I used to source elements as and when I saw them and then sit down to derive designs using them. That was quite challenging and fun. Of late, I have started enjoying sketching out my designs in detail and then sourcing materials as required. I sketch everything from stones and silver that’ll be used, colors and shapes to the lengths.

Though there are some amazing options in alloyed metals I like to keep my love for silver to the core and mostly use either Sterling Silver (92.5% silver content) and/or Thai Karen Hill Tribe Silver (97-99% silver content) though occasionally I like to experiment with brass. On one side Sterling silver gives me the solid foundation in my pieces, Thai Karen silver on the other adds a rustic raw handmade touch to it. When I design a piece I imagine it on three attires – a traditional Indian attire (like a saree or a salwar-kameez), an Indo-fusion attire (like jeans with a kurta) and a completely western outfit (like a skirt/pant suit or a dress). I have been fortunate to have lovely customers who chose to wear my pieces with all these attires.

In either case I always follow the principle of not having more than 10 pieces per collection and I never make more than one piece of a single design except rarely. Each piece is one-of-a-kind. Once that is in place it’s a bit of a waiting period while the materials arrive during which time I plan my photo-shoots. I always like to finish making all the pieces before proceeding to take pictures. I find this part of the whole creative process the most stressful and most time-consuming because this is what the whole world is going to see; so it needs to be every bit perfect.

The photo-shoots are followed by lots of sorting and editing and many hours at the computer getting my collection social media and buyer ready. Once I’ve given this a satisfactory green signal, I launch the collection to my lovely audience.

HOW TO CARE FOR & STORE YOUR SILVER JEWELLERY

CARE:

- Any piece of jewellery must be handled delicately and treated with care.

- It is the innate characteristic of silver to tarnish and is not a manufacturing defect. Tarnishing is a chemical process that causes silver lose it's lustre, especially as a result of exposure to air or moisture..

- One of the most important factors to keep in mind while caring for silver is to keep it away from moisture of any kind such as during a shower or while swimming.

- Remove any jewellery before going in for a bath, a swim, a sauna room or before participating in physical exercise that causes perspiration. If the jewellery does get wet wipe it dry with a soft cloth as soon as possible.

- Silver jewellery should be worn after applying make-up, lotions, cremes and perfumes as they may contain certain chemicals that can tarnish the silver with time.

- Avoid the contact of silver with cleaning agents and products containing sulphur, salts and chlorine. Avoid wearing silver jewellery while swimming as the chlorine in the water might tarnish it.

CLEANING:

- Wipe your silver jewellery with a soft cloth before and after use. This ensures any moisture or chemicals have been cleaned off and a build-up can be avoided.

- You can use store bought silver cleaning cloths to wipe the pieces off of any tarnish but they have to be used sparingly.

- Silver can also be cleaned by polishing them with any white fluoride containing toothpaste and wiped clean with a soft cloth after.

- Never scrub the jewellery or use detergents to clean them.

STORAGE:

- Silver jewellery should always be stored away from harsh sunlight, heat and moisture. Never keep them in bathrooms as they will get tarnished due to the moisture.

- Always store jewellery in a cool, dark place such as cabinet drawers or jewellery cupboards.

- Jewellery should always be kept in re-sealable polythene bags, cotton lined jewellery boxes or soft cloth jewellery pouches.

- Do not store silver jewellery in leather pouches or bags.