INDIAN INSTITUTE OF JEWELLERY 

              -Dhara Kothari.

The Indian Institute of Jewellery (IIJ) believes in teaching through hands-on, rather than just plain lectures and books. They believe that what you practice cannot be experienced through mere classroom teaching.

“When we select students, we do so without any entrance exams, in fact we do not believe in grading through examination alone,” points out Ms. Renu Kapoor, Director of IIJ. The institute has been promoted by the Jatia family of the Modern Group. Besides setting up of business education, they decided to tap into those hobby skills and turn them into professions. It is sad that although the world sources 90% of diamonds and gems from India, yet they contribute to only 3% of the world’s jewellery market. It is not that we do not have fine designs but what we lack is the international quality of manufacturing. “Most of the designers are not empowered with how jewellery is made. They prefer drawing the best jewellery design, hand it to the jewellery maker and voila the creation is ready, which may not really stick to the original concept or design. Just like a fashion designer is taught the cuts and the drapes to start with, so also we prefer teaching the students all about designing by making them work straight at the cutting table,” explained Ms. Kapoor.

Today a jeweller or an exporter knows the trade but cannot pick the tool to show the maker. “The focus is on understanding the technique,” points Kapoor. There are about 11,137 jewellery manufacturers in India but only 820 are in the organized sector. The institute has many courses catering to anyone remotely interested in jewellery industry. There are long and short term courses and varied interest workshops that can be checked from their website, http://www.indianinstituteofjewellery.com

THE MAKING OF A RING

The prospect of converting a writer into a jewellery maker for a day sounded too tempting to be missed. The Indian Institute of Jewellery, arranged for several of us to a crash course in making a jewellery piece. We were taken to a work station, where several required tools were laid out and explained. We started with determining our ring finger size to measure and mark it on a strip of thick copper placed on the table. The next step was to cut the copper strip according to the size needed and then cleaning it thoroughly. After which I bent the strip on the mandrel into the ring shape. Obviously the joints were not perfect, so it was back to the bench to saw and file it till the ends came together taking a little machine help to join the ends. After which the remaining tiny gap was soldered with a small silver strip. This filled the gap and molded it into a perfect ring shape.

The next step was to file it with emery paper and sticks to give it a fine polish. The last step was to run the ring through the polish machine to give it the final finishing touch that made a junk looking metal ring into a fine, sparkling ring, ready to wear immediately, which I did. I took great pride in this craft and which would not have been possible to achieve the task in two hours without the constant help and support from the professors and senior students. It was an experience worthy of an attempt at least once in your life or even make that a profession. You can also become a studio bench jewellery maker and in time become a proud owner of your own creations.

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