SOCIETY OF JEWELLERY HISTORIANS AT THE BURLINGTON HOUSE
LONDON, 2025
The project made its scholarly debut at a symposium of the Society of Jewellery Historians, moderated by Melanie Grant. The question in discussion was straightforward enough:
Why beads?
Puja: “Because beading is one of jewellery's most enduring, most sophisticated languages, yet one of its most misunderstood. It is dismissed, too often, as repetitive, as ornamental and as beneath the notice of scholarship.”
The reality is quite the contrary. Beading is a discipline demanding precision and a rhythm that can take a lifetime to master and a single knot to undo. Gold and gemstone get the attention, but beads have adorned deities and courts for centuries. They are the carriers of lineage and knowledge, something that written records have long overlooked.
This was not a claim made lightly since by the time the room gathered in London, the research behind it was already a year deep with months spent in the courtyards of Kutch and Kathiawar, gathering a history that had never been documented because it did not need to be. It lived instead in the techniques and objects themselves.
Grant questioned the authorship of jewellery
Who is the maker when a technique has existed for centuries? How do brands responsibly position themselves when working with inherited forms? In this craft the answer became clear. Every artisan has a lineage too long to attribute to a single source and therefore authorship is generational and collective.
The discussion was moved away from viewing craft through a nostalgia lens
Our founders made the case for an engagement with heritage that does not freeze it in time. Traditional techniques are kept adaptive and relevant since the worth is in the hand that makes it, not the material.
GALLERY DIFFERENT
LONDON, 2025
The project made its scholarly debut at a symposium of the Society of Jewellery Historians, moderated by Melanie Grant. The question in discussion was straightforward enough:
Why beads?
Puja: “Because beading is one of jewellery's most enduring, most sophisticated languages, yet one of its most misunderstood. It is dismissed, too often, as repetitive, as ornamental and as beneath the notice of scholarship.”
The reality is quite the contrary. Beading is a discipline demanding precision and a rhythm that can take a lifetime to master and a single knot to undo. Gold and gemstone get the attention, but beads have adorned deities and courts for centuries. They are the carriers of lineage and knowledge, something that written records have long overlooked.
This was not a claim made lightly since by the time the room gathered in London, the research behind it was already a year deep with months spent in the courtyards of Kutch and Kathiawar, gathering a history that had never been documented because it did not need to be. It lived instead in the techniques and objects themselves.
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THE AMETHYST
CHENNAI, SEPT 2025
“A love letter to legacy”
There is a considered quality to The Amethyst in Chennai, a place where one can find art, design and heritage coexisting with the contemporary. It made for an apt venue for Unbound by Beads to put some tangible substance to the ideas and research of the project.
At the centre were The Moi Collectibles, an ode to India’s craft traditions and ingenuity and sense of belonging that is stitched into each piece, into every thread and bead.
Morgan
Kunal: I would point to the tortoise pieces from the Collectible aries as my pick from the Morgans. They have become something of an unofficial mascot for the brand, carrying the symbolism of wisdom, longevity and luck. In Moi, Morgan has taken on a life of its own as the archivist and the timekeeper, the wiser counterpart to my own restless energy.
ABC
HOUSE OF VANDY, A HERITAGE BUNGALOW
KOCHI, DEC 2025
One has to ask what makes a collectible in the first place and the story of Unbound by Beads travelled further to ask this question.
We made our way to the House of Vandy for the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, the longest running contemporary art biennale in South Asia, India’s first. It was only the only natural next chapter as one of India’s historic port cities, shaped by the movement of materials and ideas across the sea, much like the path of the bead to Gujarat.
“Like the metaphorical bead that travelled from Venice and Africa to Kutch, I think our project and our research is going to literally travel the world for it. Because beadworking is as old as human kind,” says Puja.
A journey towards craft and people, bonded through the realm of design and memories.
Moi's pulse has always been discovery of craft, culture, people and historical heritage resulting in an assortment of projects, discoveries and memories so far.
