The Thikri Collection
The word Thikri means ‘pieces’ as the craft involves shaping small convex pieces of mirrors and creating mosaics with them. It is an old craft, being practiced in India since ages; one of the most prominent showcases of this work is the Sheesh Mahal in Amber Fort, Jaipur. The one thing that fascinates us the most about this craft is how at any step, the work literally reflects the artisan and the designer, not only their life stories but also their worldly stories.
When we started conceptualizing this collection, we knew that we wanted to do something with this technique, which was not already being done. We wanted to pick up one of the craft’s elements and see how we could subtly play with it. So we decided to bring this work out of the wall and make it into something that one could interact with.
Theoretical research explained so little about Thikri, that instead of beginning our design process with doodling on paper, we decided to doodle with the technique directly to understand it’s shortcomings, it’s weaknesses and strengths and to find areas where we could intervene without having the technique lose its essence. This was also the first project where we were playing and rather freely with the structure and form of a product. We believe in believing, we believe that a form or a visual should come from within, if it does not tell your story consciously, it should tell it unconsciously. We knew the visuals we were creating on paper were wild and would need a lot of refining before they could be finally sampled, but that is what kept us going, the excitement of creating something, we had not seen before.
The style of surface design was a very planned decision, after experimenting with our modern looks in this technique in the first phase, we knew that these compositions, did not do justice to the grandeur of Thirki craft. So we just went ahead with playing with more traditional forms, in a rather semi-modern way.
All the products developed in this collection express the same thought- to bring thikri out of the wall, and make it more interactive. The wall lights are simple, playing at different elevations from the wall. The dividers are more playful, hanging in the air, calling you to dally with them. Although their form is derived from the traditional motifs of Thikri they look more modern yet classy. The hooks are a complete package, small, not only in size but also for your pocket, have the class of thikri work and the youth of the collection’s freshness.
Mirrors show you, you! And that is one of the reasons that makes Thikri such an intriguing craft. It is an image of you cut down in many small beautiful pieces, each piece shows a little bit of you, a little bit different of you. Every time you look at a piece of Thikri artwork, you are finding your story in its intricacy.