For years I designed high jewellery in the United States, working with gold, diamonds and the kind of craftsmanship that fine jewellery demands. When I moved to India in 2021, I wanted something simple for myself: a well-made silver pendant of Srinathji and Narasimha Dev.

I thought it would be easy to find, but it wasn't. There were plenty of devotional pendants, but none with the detail, proportion or finish I was used to. When I asked jeweller friends why pieces like this were made so beautifully in gold but not in silver, they told me customers simply wouldn't pay for that level of work in silver.

I didn't agree. The material shouldn't decide how much care goes into a piece. So I went back to my workshop and designed devotional pendants the way I would any fine jewellery, with better proportions, cleaner sculpting, finer detail and proper finishing. They cost far more to make than the market was used to, but the first pieces told me it was worth it. Jeweller friends saw them and asked me to make more for their stores, and I did.

Before long, cheaper copies started appearing. The details were lost and the craftsmanship was cut back until the pieces only looked similar from a distance. That's when I realised that if we wanted to protect the standard of the work, we had to build the brand ourselves.

We founded Arts of Devotion in 2023 on one belief: devotional jewellery deserves the same care as fine jewellery. We work mainly in 92.5 sterling silver, but we don't think of it as "silver jewellery." We design jewellery. Every piece, from the expression on a deity's face to the smallest ornament and finish, is made to that standard.