Things Jaipur Has Taught Me About Jewellery

Notes from my first Dilli Grey jewellery collection

I came to Jaipur this trip knowing that I wanted to explore jewellery for Dilli Grey. What I hadn’t expected was quite how much I would fall in love with the process of making it.

I’ve worked with artisans in India for many years, surrounded by block printers, embroiderers, dyers and makers. Craft has always been at the heart of Dilli Grey.

But jewellery has opened up a completely new world to me.

Over the past few weeks I’ve been meeting jewellery makers, looking through what feels like thousands of stones, learning about metals, watching things being made and asking a LOT of questions.

And I thought I would share some of the things I’ve discovered along the way.

There is so much more to a gemstone than I realised

I have always loved semi-precious stones, but I had absolutely no idea how much there was to learn.

I’ve been learning how stones are selected and graded, looking at differences in colour, clarity, inclusions and quality — and beginning to understand why two stones that initially look quite similar can have completely different values.

But perhaps the thing I’ve loved most is seeing what happens to the stones that aren’t destined to become perfect polished gems.

I’ve seen beautiful pieces used for carved hearts and tiny keepsakes, smaller pieces used in decorative work, and even tiny chips and powders finding another purpose.

There is something about that mentality that really resonates with me.

We have always tried to work this way with our textiles at Dilli Grey — saving remnants, turning leftover fabric into bags and accessories, and valuing the work and resources that have already gone into making something.

Seeing that same instinct amongst the jewellery artisans here has been fascinating.

2. Jaipur really is a city of jewellery

You can walk through Jaipur and see jewellery everywhere, but until I started developing this collection I hadn’t really appreciated just how many different hands and skills can sit behind a single piece.

There are people who specialise in sourcing stones. People who cut them. People who polish them. Carvers. Metalworkers. Stone setters. Beaders.

And alongside bigger workshops and high end stores there is still an extraordinary network of individual multi generational craftspeople and small family businesses.

I’ve been able to sit with artisans, choose stones, change a detail, try a different combination and make incredibly small quantities.

For someone like me who loves designing instinctively, it is heaven.

Instead of having to decide months in advance that we need hundreds of identical pieces, we can make a handful of something beautiful, see whether you love it as much as I do, and then make some more.

It feels incredibly Dilli Grey.

3. I’ve discovered that the metal matters too

This has probably been my biggest learning curve.

Some of the first Dilli Grey pieces I’ve chosen and developed use semi-precious stones with sterling silver and gold-plated silver. They’re beautiful, special pieces and I absolutely love them.

But precious-metal prices have risen enormously, and that sent me down another rabbit hole: brass.

I’m currently learning about different brass compositions, finishes and plating techniques, and I’m now looking carefully at things such as nickel content and testing before we develop this part of the collection further.

What excites me about brass is the possibility of creating a different kind of Dilli Grey jewellery. Not a lesser version of the special pieces but something with a completely different purpose.

Jewellery for every day

Pieces you can layer up. Hoops and bangles you throw on without thinking. A necklace that looks just as good with a white shirt or cashmere jumper as it does with one of our block-printed dresses.

And then, alongside those, our more precious gemstone pieces — the ones you might collect, treasure and keep.

I’m still working out exactly what these two parts of our jewellery world will be called, but I rather love the idea of Everyday & Treasures.

4. Small batches make jewellery incredibly exciting

This might be the part that excites me most, I’m writing this from Jaipur, surrounded by the people actually making these pieces.

So rather than trying to predict what everybody will want six months from now, I can show you what I’ve found and what we’ve made now.

If you love something, I can go back to the artisan and ask if we can make some more.

If you’re all obsessed with one particular stone, I can go and hunt for more of it and if something doesn’t quite capture your imagination, that’s useful too.

It turns the collection into a conversation between me, the makers here and you.

That’s exactly how I want Dilli Grey jewellery to grow.

5. The biggest lesson? It doesn’t actually feel like a new category

This has surprised me.

I thought I was coming to Jaipur to develop a jewellery collection, instead, it has made me think about Dilli Grey differently.

The jewellery and the clothes aren’t separate things at all, they come from the same love of colour, craftsmanship, beautiful imperfections and the extraordinary skill of Indian artisans.

A hand-cut rose quartz sitting beside one of our block prints suddenly makes complete sense to me, they’re part of the same world.

And I think this might only be the beginning.

The first Jaipur jewellery drop

I’m going to release the first small selection of my Jaipur finds this evening.

There are only tiny quantities of each because, for now, I want to keep this exploratory — choosing things I genuinely love and seeing what you love too.

And the particularly exciting bit?

I’m still in Jaipur.

So if something disappears quickly, I can quite literally go back to the makers and see what else we can create.

Consider this the first chapter of our jewellery story.

Vickie x 💎