Dive deep into the captivating world of KARINA CHOUDHRIE, the London-based high-end jewellery designer who has been making waves with her exquisite high jewellery lines at the recent Couture show at the Wynn, USA. A contemplative artist, Karina draws inspiration from nature and architecture, immersing herself in their beauty to craft breathtaking jewels. With the launch of her label, K&Co, she introduced her collection, Under the Sea, which whispers tales of the ocean’s mystique. Each piece, resplendent on a grand scale, carries within it an essence of enchantment—a testament to Karina’s alchemy of design.
Tell us more about the beginning of your journey in jewellery design. What inspired you to pursue this career? The training you underwent, and your connection with India.
I have always been captivated by the rich heritage and cultural significance of jewellery in India, where it is deeply intertwined with our traditions, emotional connections, and familial bonds. Growing up in such an environment, jewellery became a fundamental part of my identity and aspirations.
I honed my skills at the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) in Carlsbad, USA, and further developed my craftsmanship as a goldsmith jeweller.
Under the guidance of my design professor, Bob Barnes, a former head of Van Cleef and Arpels on Rodeo Drive, I mastered the art of design language and the intricate process of jewellery creation. His teachings have deeply influenced my approach to design, emphasising perfection and attention to detail.
My creative process blends historical techniques with contemporary technology, allowing me to craft pieces that honour the past while embracing the future. My goal is to create jewellery that not only reflects the timeless beauty and traditions of India but also resonates with modern aesthetics and innovations.
With a strong foundation in both the technical and artistic aspects of jewellery making, I am committed to bringing unique, meaningful designs to life, continuing to explore the rich tapestry of our cultural heritage, and contributing to the ever-evolving world of jewellery.
I live to work with natural colour.
How did your experience as a private jeweller creating bespoke commissions shape your approach to design and client relationships?
Working as a private jeweller was one of the most extraordinary experiences of my life. It taught me a great deal about understanding how people think and feel, and the significance of the emotions connected to the jewellery they wear. I am immensely grateful to my special clients who trusted me with their cherished family heirlooms and pieces from prestigious maisons, giving me the opportunity to create bespoke high jewellery pieces. This journey fostered personal relationships and involved educating clients on the possibilities and the art of jewellery creation.
Now that you are a high-end jewellery artist bringing out your own lines, have you experienced creative freedom?
Having the creative freedom to develop my own fine jewellery collection has been an incredible learning journey.
Building a brand and a signature collection requires thought, recognition, and time. This process is vastly different from simply creating individual pieces. It has involved extensive research and development, countless hours on the workshop bench. It was crucial for me to infuse the essence and craftsmanship of our high jewellery pieces into my fine jewellery lines, which have a distinctive design language that makes them unmistakably mine. Creativity is freedom in so many ways, freedom of thought and ideas …
How has your multicultural background influenced your design aesthetic?
Having lived in different cities and embracing my Indian heritage while growing up in Dubai, living in America, and now residing in England for many years, has greatly broadened my perspective and school of thought. My experiences living in various countries have undoubtedly shaped and enriched my work, reflecting a truly multicultural essence.
In the jewellery industry, we have a universal language that transcends borders. Whether we are working in our workshops in Jaipur or Italy, we communicate in a way that is deeply understood within our craft. This unique language of jewellery, which I have studied through mineralogy and design history, dates back to the Stone Age.
Tell us more about your debut collection Under The Sea.
Under the Sea is my love letter to the oceans. My fascination with the ocean began early; I’ve been swimming in the sea since I was two years old. The underwater world is a vibrant, dynamic realm full of colour, life, energy, and stories. Inspired by years of exploration and a collaboration with a marine biologist in Mauritius in 2016, I dedicated my first high jewellery collection to this enchanting ecosystem.
I aimed to work with a wide palette of natural colours, embracing creative freedom to blend hues and craft pieces as I envisioned. I sought to transcend traditional barriers within the gem and mineral world, challenging distinctions between precious and non-precious, high and low quality, colour, clarity, and cut. Mother Nature’s creations are inherently beautiful, yet humans impose grades and values, deeming some things more important than others.
Each piece reflects the beauty and diversity of the ocean, featuring an array of gems and minerals. We’ve paired red spinel with diamonds, combined multi-coloured spinels with chrysocolla, and created numerous mood boards capturing underwater scenes that have inspired our designs. We personally carved much of the rough material, a process that has taken many years.
Your latest line Vitamin Pink is attracting a lot of attention …
Vitamin Pink marks our brand’s exciting entry into the fine jewellery world. We set out to create fine jewellery that tells the same captivating stories and showcases the exquisite craftsmanship as our high jewellery pieces.
The collection is named Vitamin Pink because pink is the heart and soul of our brand.
Our vision for Vitamin Pink was to craft a design language that is both strong and elegant, powerful yet a touch edgy. We combined time-honoured techniques with modern setting styles, drawing inspiration from my daily walks through London, with its blend of stunning architecture and historic buildings. This collection reflects these varied influences, resulting in unique and beautifully crafted pieces that resonate with our brand’s essence.
How do you ensure that each piece you create has its own personality?
Within our fine jewellery collection, many pieces belong to the same family, sharing a similar spirit. This consistency helps maintain our brand language across the collection.
However, our high jewellery pieces are distinctively different. Each one has its own unique storytelling and incorporates its own mechanism. One of my favourite pieces is a seahorse necklace featuring an Australian boulder opal. We aimed to express the themes of music and love in the ocean with this design.
Seahorses are fascinating because the males carry the babies and eggs, a rare trait not found in terrestrial animals. This necklace symbolises that extraordinary love. The Australian boulder opals further enrich the piece, blending various stories to create a captivating new world.
What is your creative process when designing a new piece or collection?
When we start to create a new collection, we study the theme, and create a big mood board in-house where I make paintings to translate key themes.
For Vitamin Pink, the design process involved capturing architectural and heritage-based images during my walks from home to the office. These scenes were painted onto a mood board, which served as inspiration. We then dissected these images, extracting key elements and incorporating them into a second board, where we developed various designs.
Next, we mapped out a collection on a third board, categorizing pieces into rings, earrings, pendants, necklaces, and bracelets, all featuring iconic patterns derived from the second board. Following this, we selected stones and colours, creating a dedicated palette for the collection.
Only after this comprehensive study did we begin sketching the jewellery pieces on paper. Later, we refined these sketches using Procreate or CAD.
What role does the pink colour play in your brand’s identity?
Pink holds a special place in my heart. It symbolises various stages of a woman’s life: pastel pink evokes the innocence of a newborn, neon pink captures the vibrancy of a teenager, magenta pink represents youthful energy, and a deep ruby pink suggests the elegance of an elderly lady. Each shade of pink stirs different emotions, and I wanted to harness this strength, love, and power to represent my brand.
In our London atelier, we embrace all shades of pink, creating a warm, loving, and inviting space that fosters creativity. Our packaging also reflects this pink spectrum as pink captures a broad range of emotions and feelings. It truly creates a beautiful pink universe for our brand.
Can you share a challenging project you’ve worked on?
One of the most challenging projects I brought to life was a pair of brooches commissioned by a gentleman for himself. The brooches had pink diamonds with portrait-cut emerald discs, and he wanted them to represent some pieces that his mother had. The challenge was maintaining this delicate balance—reinventing the design to create something new, yet ensuring it resonated with his sentimental vision. Bespoke work demands this fine balance, as it involves creating pieces that precisely capture what the client is looking for.
How do you balance creativity and practicality when designing jewellery, especially for high jewellery collections versus ready-to-wear pieces?
Creativity versus practicality for high jewellery collections is something I don’t usually think of, because when I create, it’s all about a form of art for me; it’s about design, structure, and technical details that come into play, but the pieces always have the spirit of just working with the wearer.
For fine jewellery pieces, practicality and durability are paramount. We prioritise strong, bold structures and exceptional designs. Hidden clasps and springy bracelets are engineered for ease of use, allowing wearers to put them on effortlessly. Our pieces are designed for comfort, ensuring they can be worn all day—from morning to night, at the gym, in the office, or even while sleeping—without compromising their strength and quality.
Functionality is crucial. Each piece undergoes extensive research and development, followed by a rigorous six-month trial period. They are worn daily, including by our team, to ensure they withstand the test of time and maintain their integrity.
Interspersed with round brilliant diamonds, these arrows are a reminder of the importance of navigation at sea, where losing direction can be perilous. Follow the trail of this waist-length 18-karat white gold necklace and it will lead you to a magnificent rubellite. The centre stone has been custom-cut to reference gems from the Mughal era, with a rose-cut pattern and a smooth, flat underside. By K&Co.
What future collections are you excited about?
For the next five years, I will continue to expand Under the Sea collection, adding 35 new pieces annually.
I’m also excited to have launched in the American market, something I was eager to do. My journey has just begun in a reinvented way. I’m excited to make less but truly make better. I feel proud to make in India as I want to talk about our heritage, culture, the skills and talents we have. I want to train lots more women that can work on the bench, and the jewellery industry.
How do you manage your work-life balance? If you were not a jewellery designer, what would you have pursued?
I am always trying to create balance, but sometimes I feel like the best thing is to just go with the flow. Some days are always going to be better than others. There is no perfect scenario.
I am a mother of four beautiful children, and I’m grateful to have a supportive husband. That helps a lot.
My work is my passion, so it truly does not feel like work. I always say to my children, it’s my first baby. I’ve been making jewellery way before I’ve been a mother. I know I’m going to make jewellery to my very last day here on planet Earth.
I feel blessed and honoured to be a part of this incredible and beautiful industry. To have this ability to create and love to do what I do.
I am also a nutritionist. I’m passionate about the human body and how it works, our minds, our thoughts. I love to do meditation, yoga. I love nature, and being outdoors. If I wasn’t a jeweller, maybe I’d be a teacher or a lawyer.
I’m good at communication. I love people. I love working with people. I would say I’m a people’s person.