Designing Women
Royal Revival
Amber Sami
“I have a degree in interior design from the Parsons School of Design in New York where I learnt the core principles of design. I was very fortunate to be there since it’s very different and provides a highly specialised education.
I returned to Lahore about five years ago. I started doing interior design projects but I soon realised I wasn’t inspired at all. I needed something else. So, for now, it’s jewellery that inspires me immensely and is a major passion of mine.
‘Revival’ is a clichéd term, but that is what I’m trying to do: revive the jewellery from regions of the subcontinent that have never been worked on before, such as Kerala and Mysore. I have to say that I give a lot of credit to the exposure my art school education gave me. You get to understand theories in great depth, which made me realise that if something is not affordable, it will not truly be revived. If I were to use gold, it will only be affordable to a few privileged people. That is why so far I have only used silver in my designs.
I have skilled craftsmen who were found after a lot of searching and taught for about four years in order for them to understand the level of finishing and the mindset I demand. The mindset is not “New. Shiny. Glitzy.” The mindset goes back to what the old masters created. Aspiring for that craftsmanship means following microscopic instructions. For instance, from the Nizam of Hyderabad’s collection, I have replicated Gauhar Begum’s taaweez. The amulet’s proportions have this divine planning and it’s not a simple square pendant – these are geometric proportions that you can’t mess with.
One of the most significant places that has inspired me is New York, which is the centre of my learning and knowledge because of all the shows I attended at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Guggenheim. But places like the Rawar Fort in Cholistan, the palaces in Bahawalpur and Rakni in Balochistan have fed magic into my mind. At the same time, my revival jewellery is not strictly limited to Pakistan. A pair of earrings that I have produced in an Indo-French design is the Nizam of Hyderabad’s design commissioned by him to Cartier, who gave it a European sensibility. The end product was Cartier’s take on the subcontinent’s jewellery. So revival crosses borders and boundaries and isn’t limited to just one region.
It is essential for designers to travel and search the world. Your life’s whole exposure is not the latest Cosmopolitan or Google. It is really the requirement that you go, you travel, you see regions, you see colours and you see textures. In order to be a designer, you must follow your heart. I opened an interior design studio in Delhi, called Studio 9. Four months later, the Parliament House bombing took place and I had to pack up and leave. People thought I was mad to even start something like that, but luck was with me.
However, this is just a by-product of my life. I am not a jeweller, I am a designer. This is an 18-month project as of now. I plan to continue it and I have other things in my life. I love photography. I love to print my own pictures in the dark room. I do my interior architecture. I make specific design courses and workshops that I teach at art schools.”
Amber Sami
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A thing that is missing from this site is credits, i think it needs to be addressed asap before someone gets mad