‘Unbound by Beads’: A Fine Jewelry Narrative Rooted in Craft Heritage
In June 2025, at Gallery Different in London, a quiet yet profound conversation unfolded, one that reached far beyond jewelry as ornament. Unbound by Beads, presented by Indian jewelry houses Aurus and MOI, was not a showcase in the conventional sense. It was an act of listening: to women, to materials, to traditions shaped by centuries of repetition, memory, and care.
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Founded by husband-and-wife duo Kunal and Puja Shah, Aurus and MOI have long approached jewelry as a cultural language rather than a commodity. Unbound by Beads marked a pivotal moment in this philosophy, bringing years of research on beadwork traditions from Kutch and Kathiawar in western India into an international dialogue on craft, gender, and heritage.
Beads as Bound Form, Liberated Meaning
At the heart of the evening was a live conversation between Puja Shah and Melanie Grant, one of the most influential voices in contemporary jewelry, known globally for her advocacy of craftsmanship, ethics, and equity within the industry.
“Unbound by Beads reflects the dual nature of the tradition,” Puja Shah noted during the discussion. “On one hand, beads are physically bound by a single thread; on the other, the craft gave women a form of creative freedom and social identity within rigid cultural frameworks. It bound and liberated all at once.”
Historically, beadwork in Kutch and Kathiawar was an exclusively female, matrilineal practice. Girls learned the craft from as young as seven, spending years creating dowry objects, beaded textiles, ritual items, and decorative forms, intended not for themselves, but for the groom’s household. With the gradual decline of dowry systems, this once-ubiquitous women’s art began to disappear, taking with it entire knowledge systems embedded in domestic life. Their dialogue situates beadwork not merely as craft, but as cultural knowledge shaped by women’s lives. Read the complete conversation between Puja Shah and Melanie Grant here.
Research as Design Practice
What began as a design inquiry evolved into a multi-year research initiative, developed in collaboration with The Office for Technical Aesthetics. The Shahs’ approach combined historical scholarship with ethnographic fieldwork, tracing over 150 years of beading tradition.
Kutch’s geography played a critical role in shaping its visual language. Located at the intersection of four landforms, the region has historically functioned as a cultural and commercial crossroads. Port cities such as Cambay once connected India to international trade routes spanning Venice, the Middle East, and Africa, allowing materials like Venetian glass beads to enter Gujarat’s interior.
Rather than remaining foreign, these beads were absorbed into local life. Pastoral women transformed them into objects of self-expression, ritual, and identity, embedding global materials within distinctly regional vocabularies.
Interviews with artisans such as Sitabai of Saurashtra, alongside community members in Bhuj, revealed how beadwork operates as a vessel of cultural memory, closely tied to rites of passage, domestic rituals, and spiritual symbolism.
From Archive to Contemporary Jewelry
The evening also unveiled Kutch Collectibles, a limited-edition fine jewelry capsule designed by Puja Shah. The collection reinterprets archival bead motifs through pirai, a traditional South Asian stringing technique used to create delicate, often lattice-like structures.
Pirai demands exceptional precision, bead calibration, and dexterity, skills now held by only a handful of remaining artisans.
“This is a technique that’s at risk of disappearing,” Puja Shah shared. “By recontextualising pirai within contemporary fine jewelry, we’re not only celebrating its beauty but helping ensure its survival.”
Here, jewelry becomes both archive and intervention, an object that carries history forward without freezing it in time.
