Carved Artworks

Acclaimed London-based jewellery designer FLORA BHATTACHARY’s stark yet appealing jewels set with distinctively carved gemstones evoke a powerful imagery, delicately balancing geometric forms with a delightful profusion of colours. India has a special pull on her. Flora’s ancestors travelled to the country to trade for the East India Company. The exotic and mystical landscapes and the travelogues impelled her to dig into India’s rich history. The mythological stories and references to Hindu goddesses further helped her to create collections that were enshrined in gold and gemstones. There is a distinct crossover of cultural influences in Flora’s unique compositions that dextrously team technology and traditional techniques to create future heirlooms.

- Shanoo Bijlani

Tell us a little more about yourself and your link to Asia. 

My family links to India go back to the 18th century. In the 1770s, four of my ancestors left Ireland to work and trade for the East India Company. Two went to Malaysia and two to India. They eventually established their own trading company with links to India.

As my connection to India is so far back in the roots of my family – this wasn’t something that I grew up consciously aware of. I only came to really understand those links when I went to Central Saint Martins. There we were encouraged to look into our family history and our personal passions. My husband is half Indian, so he was interested to understand the history of migration in both our families.

While I was investigating my family background, I discovered a collection of Mughal coins that was donated to the British Museum by my ancestors. I was invited into the archives to see the coins – and this became the starting point for my first collections.

This link carried on through to the present day and my cousins had roles in the foreign office as commissioner of the British Indian Ocean Territory, and at the British Council as director general for South Asia.

You have been influenced by jewellery and its designs since childhood. What role has it played in your life and in shaping your aesthetics? 

I think that the influences you experience as a child really form your aesthetic later on. My mother wore Tibetan and Indian jewellery and our house was full of Persian carpets and rich colour – this must have subconsciously influenced me. I was also influenced by the homes of my great-aunt and my grandmother – both of whom had amazing art deco furnishings in their houses.