The last month of has found me mainly in Jaipur, India developing a new Collection to take to London in May and also for my New York shows in May and July. In between work, the city has been full of festivals and fun. First of all we had the Elephant Festival, which was an excuse to paint and parade lots of gorgeous elephants around.

Elephant Festival Jaipur

The next colourful event was HOLI – which is an excuse for everyone to throw lots of brightly coloured paints at each other. My great friend Charlotte Hayward who runs the wonderful Vivenda dos Palhacos hotel in Goa,( www.vivendadospalhacos.com) was staying here with her sister and we all celebrated Holi together at the Royal Heritage Hotel in Jaipur. We all wore pyjamas as it is near impossible to get all the paint out.

Holi festivites with Emma Chapman, Charlotte Hayward and Emma Plunkett

I was also lucky to be invited to a muslim wedding in Jaipur this month – where I was very well looked after by all the ladies

Emma Chapman at a wedding in Jaipur

The groom Sheriff – arrived in Indian tradition on a horse, and was paraded around the backstreets

Indian groom

Visits also took place to Amber Fort, which is near Jaipur, where I hadnt been for some time, and  was once again reminded how exquisite the Jali work, mirror work  and mosaic work there is.

Emma Chapman at Amber Fort

It is difficult not to be inspired by all this incredible cultural heritage and as always it feeds it back into my work.

Historians and travellers have written about the magic and wonders of India for an age, but these sights and sounds always continue to amaze and inspire me.  I love the colours of this stunning mirror work…

Mirrored work in India

and beautiful wall patterns

Peacock Wall pattern

There is so much to fill the senses. The next Collection will be full of lovely patterns, and muted jewels. I am working a lot with blues and greens at the moment, using sapphire, iolite, apatite, diopside, green onyx and  emeralds and greys such as labradorite and moonstone, whites but also some vivid burnt orange carnelian, hessonite and red rubies, garnets and dark pink tourmalines. There will be a new Spring Collection on the website soon. And for any of those of you who live in Delhi, I will be exhibiting there on April 15th at the Hyatt Regency Hotel and on April 16th at the Swedish Embasssy.

I will be coming to London in April and will be showcasing at Asia House from the 26th-29th April and at the Hepsibah Gallery from the 10th-17th May, which is in Brackenbury Village,  Brackenbury Road Hammersmith.

Some of my new Collection can now be also seen in Fenwick, Bond Street in London- as a taster here is my Baby Lakshmi diamond and chyrsophase pendant

Emma Chapman jewels pendant

As mentioned in the last blog, Emma Chapman jewels launched in the States in January and new Collections can now be found all over the USA, ranging from the jewellery store Shalyula in upstate New York to Bella Boutique in Arkansas, ETC in Alabama, Apparel 227 in Soho New York, the Grand Hotel on Mackinay Island, Modern Styles for Life in PA and on-line, and the soon to be launched new fashion site Karat & Ice.

More news soon…..

Jaipur has been freezing like the rest of the world, and the biggest excitement here in January to keep us distracted, was the Jaipur Literary Festival, which has become quite an international event. Hosted by the author William Dalrymple, it attracts the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Deepak Chopra, Tom Stoppard, David Hare, Ben Okri, Richard Dawkins and Lionel Shriver. Hundreds of thousands descended on Diggi Palace, the venue where the event takes place, on the day Oprah Winfrey was there,  I wondered if the mobs were worth braving. But in the end I got Oprah, i understood what she is all about, she speaks emotively from the heart. She was in India filming with Deepak Chopra, and both of them talked about different aspects of spiritualism and what it meant for them. Richard Dawkins on the other hand, spoke about all things scientific. And David Hare and Tom Stoppard spoke about all things cultural – The Art of the Playwright.  Nicole Farhi, the designer was there and I was lucky enough to meet her and discuss possible future collaborations.

Every evening there was a music celebration. For me the star was  Parvathi Baul, the amazing Baul singer, who sings about the soul from the soul.

Parvathi Baul, Jaipur Literary Festival

Truly a priviledge to hear her singing, and hear her talking about Women Mystics, and her path to becoming a mystic.  The Jaipur Literary Festival was rounded off at the writers ball, held on the ramparts of Amer Fort – which was stunning.

Emma Chapman

The festival is over now and life has been a bit calmer since then. Ideas are being to emerge for new designs. Am totally in love with pink tourmalines at the moment and will be using them in lots of new designs.

Pink tourmalines

Pink tourmalines along with green diopside – a new discovery will be seen soon emerging in all the new designs that are taking shape. More to come soon….

Jaipur has been my base and time has been spent working on new Collections. However the wonderful thing about being in India is that there are always opportunities to go on adventures. A dear friend who is a choreographer from Australia called Liz Lea was working on a dance project in Ahmedabad with the famous indian classical dance company called the Darpana Academy – I was lucky enough to be invited to some rehearsals for a piece celebrating the great poet and writer Tagore’s 100th anniversary

Darpana Academy of Dance, Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad is an extraordinary city, and I stayed with Liz in a beautiful palace surrounded by peacocks. I used my time there to explore the city and as usual find new ideas, that I could weave back into my work. This included a visit to the amazing Calico Museum of Textiles, which contains one the world’s finest collection of antique and modern Indian textiles – outstandingly beautiful pieces. I also explored the old cities narrow streets to find glorious, multicoloured haveli’s, temples and mosques. Ahmedabad is especially famous for its incredible stone jali work, and this was one of my favourites – The Tree of Life.

The Tree of Life, Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad is also the home of the Ghandi Ashram – a wonderful oasis of peace and calm

Gandhi, Sabamati Ashram, Ahmedabad

Christmas took me back to Kathmandu, Nepal for the first time in many years. I went there to meet my family and we spent Christmas Day at an orphanage run by my lovely friend Kamal. He has about 35 children who he looks after at it is called Save Blessing Child Home

www.saveblessingchildhome.webs.com

We were all treated to a wonderful day with the children of song and dance and the famous Nepali dish – Dahl Bat – basically dahl and rice.  But it was one of the best Christmases I have ever had. As I have mentioned before, Nepal is full of colour, wonderful motives, patterns, shapes and sources of new ideas for my work. Some new Nepalese inspired rings are currently being made in my workshops.

I gather ideas as I go along and all the incredible temple paintings, patterns and colour feed back into my work.

Bhaktapur, Nepal

My journey since Nepal has taken me to the other side of the world – to New York, America. A very long way from India, but I was going there to take part in Accessorise Circuit, the big American accessorise show, where i was launching my collection for the first time in the States, under the umbrella of the top jewellery agent in New York called Fragments.

Emma Chapman jewels in New York

I am now in London on my way back to India, after an exciting and rewarding time in the States. The favourite earrings from the show seemed to be my Peacock Earrings and my Lakshmi Lotus Earrings, versions of which can also be found in Fenwick, Bond Street London and John Lewis where I sell in the UK.

Emma Chapman jewels Peacock Fan Earrings with turquoise and crysophase

These are my Peacock Fan Earrings in turquoise and crysophase, inspired by peacocks.

Emma Chapman jewels Lakshmi Lotus litte earrings with crystal and ruby

The buyers in New York loved these earrings in all sorts of different colours

Another favourite were my Lattice Earrings at the show in New York which were featured on the front cover of John Lewis’s Magazine, Editions recently

Emma Chapman Editions

They also loved my iconic Lakhmi Pendant, which is inspired by the Goddess of Beauty and Wealth – maybe that is why it is so popular. This pendant can also be found in crystal and amethyst in John Lewis and in crystal, amethyst and turquoise at Fenwick, Bond Street. Is is shaped like the moon and stars and the centre is filled with diamonds.

Emma Chapman jewels smokey topaz Lakshmi Pendant

New York was really exciting and my jewellery is now in the Fragment Showroom in Soho, New York.

Back here in the UK I am relaxing in a lovely hotel in the countryside near Elstree for a few days before heading back to India.  I I have just been to check out how things are looking in Fenwick, Bond Street and John Lewis, Oxford Street.

Fenwick, Bond Street, London

John Lewis, Oxford Street, London

Heading back to India this weekend, for the Jaipur Literary Festival which will be in full swing by then. More adventures and inspirations to follow soon…..

I finally decided I had to follow my heart, and gave up my career in film, took a sabbatical and headed for the East. I shut down my Film PR Company and took off for a year to develop my first Collection. I explored jewellery making techniques in both India, Sri Lanka and Nepal. I  studied gemmology with a master in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he took me to see amazing mines and stunning gemstones.  I spent hours pouring over gemstones in the back streets of Jaipur and then finally settled on doing my first Collection in Kathmandu, Nepal. It seemed much gentler than India, and was endlessly inspiring. Kathmandu has amazing craftsmen, and is full of Buddhist and Hindu shrines. It was a beautiful place to start my life as a jewellery designer.

It was a place full of ancient craft techniques, incredible festivals and ceremonies, very spiritual and endless inspiring

Every day there was something magical to see, that fed back into my work, amazing colours, motives on temples, extraordinary textiles…

I spent several months, developing my very first Collection there, and when I brought it back to London, the magic had worked.

I was lucky enough to be discovered by Hilary Alexander, Fashion Director of the Daily Telegraph, and chosen as a Bright Young Gem, an initiative which showcases the best new designers in the industry at International Jewellery London. My jewellery was fast selling at wonderful places like Glyndebourne Festival Opera, the Orient Express, the Victoria and Albert Museum and lots of fashion boutiques.

After this I went on to exhibit at London Fashion Week

That was about 6 years ago now and the rest is history. Things have moved forward a lot since then, and I now live between London and Jaipur, India where I have my workshops. I am lucky enough to now be selling at places like Fenwick Bond Street and John Lewis Oxford Street. I have just come back to India, from a London trip where I took part in Vogue Night in Oxford Street and did a trunk show at Fenwick. The Collection has moved forward and I am no longer based in Kathmandu. It became sadly difficult working there due to political turmoil, strikes and black outs. The last time I was there I got caught up in a major civil war, which meant curfews, tear gas, and being locked in the wonderful Kathmandu Guest house for days, as it was too dangerous to go out onto the streets> The USA Embassy was evacuating all its staff and there was a lot of panic. I stoically stayed as I had to finish my Collection! But after that trip, I decided I had go make the move to India, which was more stable and also Jaipur is the gem capital of the world. So here I am now with workshops in Jaipur.

More on that to come.

Meanwhile if you would like to check out my latest Collection – you can do so, on my website

Emma Chapman jewels

She was originally discovered by Hilary Alexander Fashion Director of the Telegraph and chosen as one of the most promising new designers of today. Since then she has exhibited numerous times at both London and Paris Fashion Week.

Each piece of her jewellery is hand made by master craftsmen and stone cutters in her workshops in Jaipur, India and evokes the magic , mystery and romance of the East. Much of the jewellery is inspired by ancient mysticism and contains tribal and spiritual elements as well as being beautiful fashion accessories in their own right.

Her work sells at places like Fenwick Bond Street, Peter Jones, John Lewis, and the National Portrait Gallery, the V@A, the Orient Express and numerous fashion boutiques.

She divides her time between India and London and was recently featured in The International Herald Tribune, Vogue  and Harpers Bazaar Magazine, as one of the top international jewellery designers working in India today. The jewellery is made in silver and 24 carat gold-plated (vermeil) with a rich matt finish, complimented by beautiful semi-precious stones. Some pieces are silver mixed with pure gold.