A BORN ARTIST

A firm believer of slow luxury, Vishal Kothari creates high, artisanal, handcrafted jewellery with handpicked gemstones. Over the years, he has created his own design language that has appealed to a global audience. some of his pieces are sold at esteemed auction houses for hefty sums. With all that pride and glory, Vishal continues to do what he does best in his atelier in Mumbai, probably while listening to pink Floyd

- Vijetha Rangabashyam

A graduate gemologist, Mumbai-based Vishal Kothari spent two decades in his family’s jewellery manufacturing company. Somewhere along the way, Vishal felt the need to break away from his family business and create jewellery that he could resonate with. To realise his vision and artistic hunger, he began his eponymous jewellery brand, V.A.K Fine Jewels. Highly inspired by museums, he weaves beautiful stories around India’s rich heritage and culture through his one-of-a-kind pieces that are handcrafted painstakingly with the choicest of gemstones. He designs not more than 120 pieces a year, some of which garner hefty sums at prestigious auction houses across the world. Vishal however didn’t always wanted to be a jewellery designer. “I wanted to be a sculptor. Or a couturier. Or a musician,” he says. However, crafting jewellery came to him naturally. “I guess I was born with it. But I was never really excited about it. I didn’t want to be in the jewellery “trade” as I saw it, and disliked how jewellery in India was treated as a commodity and a mere business. It’s when I discovered that I could be an artist that things got exciting. I had an urge to become a creator,” he adds.