ABOUT HANUT

Hanut is a contemporary jewelry designer. His distinctive palette and articulate design sensibility is drawn from a background that is both rich and vigorously au courant. His creations are briskly modern, yet they dip into the past. This has lead to a view point that is fresh and dynamic. The grandson of the late and great Maharaj Kumar Karamjit Singh of Kapurthala, Hanut seems to be taking the family tradition of style, wit and elegance through the portals of the future and letting it all explode in brilliant bursts of the Mughal meets art deco, art nouveau meets architecture, and heirlooms meet - well, insect wings.

Born into a family that is renowned for its exquisite jewelry that was often custom made in close consultations between the maestros and his grandfather, Hanut has mastered the art of combining loose stones and traditional Indian pieces and reworking them into trendy yet classy European designs - all the time saluting the Cartier and Van Cleef and Arpels’ bounty that lies in the family vaults.

Working with 18 karat gold, and an assortment of exciting precious and semi-precious stones, Hanut’s jewelry can be described as whimsical and eclectic. Be it the ever-elusive Peruvian opals, or the diamond and ruby Mughal encrusted dagger earrings with a sexy sweep and curve of the blade (inspired by his grandfather’s kirpan- a 6 ft. long sword, slung around the torso and encrusted with gems the size of golf balls), Hanut has created a look that is intrinsically his inheritance as well as his privilege. His craftsmanship is hand made by artisans who spend many hours perfecting each piece; working with balance, weight, carats and stones – in order to give the jewelry its flexibility and distinctiveness. The range of stones he employs runs the gamut - Peruvian opals, Amazon beetle wings, Japanese abalone, Afghani tourmalines, Sri-Lankan multi-sapphires, jette, Persian onyx, rubelites, tanzanites, chalcedony, black diamonds, white diamonds, starlite, Russian topaz, kundan, briolettes and yards and yards of pink pearls. This raw material, sourced from all over the world and, combined with his sleek modern outlook, make up his collections.

Refusing to budge from his foundations, all of Hanut’s jewelry is organic and handcrafted regardless of how modern or complex the design may be.

"Like a well made cocktail, my jewelry is a mix of ideas and looks ranging from some moghul influences tossed with some linear architectural inspirations, shaken in with some abstract coloring and then stirred with some art nouveau and art deco helpings. I hope it makes an enticing and intoxicatingly potent feast for the senses."