The master of modern Meenakari

Jaipur-based jewellery designer Sunita Shekhawat is preserving the art of meenakari and reinventing it to suit modern sensibilities. In an interaction with MARWAR, she discusses her love for colour and craft, her Rajasthani roots and her soon-to-be-launched meenakari museum.

- Rachna Virdi

From starting as a first-generation jeweller three decades back to owning a signature jewellery label today, Sunita Shekhawat has come a long way. Her jewellery atelier on Narayan Circle in Jaipur—inaugurated by Maharani Gayatri Devi—is layered with vintage treasures and statement pieces based on the old-world charm of meenakari and heirloom jewellery. Her intricately crafted jewellery comprising necklaces, pendants, earrings, rings and bangles, can be worn for generations to come. Called as the modern meenakar of India, her prized possessions are adorned by royalty, industrialists, political and celebrities with pride.

Shekhawat’s design language speaks of architectural influences and elements of Rajput heritage and culture. “The architectural elements like jharokha, chhatris and jaalis that can be found from Jaipur’s palaces to the forts of Mewar and Marwar loom large in my designs. I love to combine floral motifs with geometric patterns derived from these buildings,” explains the designer who sets herself apart from conventional jewellery makers with these hallmarks and defining moments in her journey.

Passion for jewellery

Born into a Rajput family in Osian Thikana, a small village near Jodhpur in Rajasthan, Shekhawat’s initiation into the jewellery industry had a lot to do with her childhood and upbringing. Owing to her forefathers’ links with the