Career option in jewellery designing

Ranjan K Baruah *

There are occasions when we use different charming products. One of the attractive and charming products is different jewellery. It is one such thing that charms all of us. It has been part and partial of our lives since ages.

From ancient days to the present we could see how it has been important for us and on many occasions. A woman has always had an affinity towards jewellery and women adorned her with precious jewellery, gold and diamonds to enhance her feminine beauty from time immemorial.

India is the biggest consumer of gold with more than 20% of world gold consumption and this industry gives employment to millions of people. Indian jewellery industry is said to have an ancient and historical tradition of over 5,000 years with its own distinct designs, patterns and art forms.

Traditionally there were less people involved in designing or making jewellery and other ornaments. Goldsmiths were involved in the process and it was more like family tradition or practice but now things have changed and there are new people coming into the profession who had no family connection with goldsmith.

Jewellery designing is an art of designing and making jewellery, stone cutting, engraving and polishing etc. Jewellery designers are those who plan the style and pattern of jewellery, silverware and other decorative metal work products. They require a high degree of skill and precision and use a variety of specialized hand tools and equipment to design and manufacture new pieces of jewellery.

The fast growing jewellery business in the country has tremendous employment potential and offers excellent career opportunities to professional executives in the industry. Graduates with specialization in Jewellery Design and Management are in great demand globally for managing the jewellery business.

A course in Jewellery designing is a comprehensive one, dealing with all the fine details of jewellery making and designing. Specially meant for those who are creative and have an artistic blend of mind, these courses give basic information on the different kinds of stones, colour coding, schemes, polishing and finishing, presentation and framing, drawing techniques, ornament making and designing and so on.

Apart from these, they could also learn special skills like electroplating, metal colouring, anodizing, enameling, stone setting and silversmithing. Numerous institutes all over India offer various courses in jewellery designing. In most of the institutes, the course is incorporated with other designing courses. There are short term courses related to entrepreneurship too.

Nowadays, computer-aided design (CAD) software is used in the manufacturing firms to facilitate product design and to avoid flaws during the designing process. There are many courses related to jewellery designing and different institutes offer those courses.

Apart from bachelor level courses there are also short term diplomas related to the course. After successful completion of a course in jewellery designing, one can find outstanding job prospects in various jewellery manufactures & designing houses, export houses and renowned jewellery brand names such as Nakshatra, Tanishq, etc.

Students from northeastern states can also think of career options in this field. The region has rich jewellery design and they can be marketed well or with creativity new innovations can be made.

Different tribes have their traditional ornaments and they can be marketed well with new designs and looking into the needs of the people. One can be an entrepreneur and self employed related to this career option.