POPPY DANDIYA
Poppy’s jewellery is often made in mixed metals:
a combination of silver, 18 karat white and yellow, and pure gold.
He uses an eclectic assortment of gemstones including rough, abstract-cut
diamonds.
Poppy’s designs have an organic sculptural quality, incorporating
his Indian heritage with a dynamic appreciation of the West, and
involve several techniques that he has created and that are unique
to him. The jewellery he now makes has, over time, been diversely
described both as very modern and very ancient. Perhaps it has an
element of the timeless. Poppy continues to design for a select
clientele of jewellery lovers.
Poppy Dandiya
was born in India in the year 1955. He studied jewellery making
and gemmology at 'Sir John Cass', London, between 1980 and 1982.
While still studying he set up a small workshop in West Hampstead,
experimenting and putting into practice the things he was learning,
and selling his creations through Liberty of Regent Street, and
the General Trading Co. at Sloane Square.
In 1984, engaged by the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, as a
design consultant for their ‘Festival of India’, he
created two bead-necklace designs in silver and garnet which went
on to become the Smithsonian catalogue’s best-selling pieces
for the next four years. In the process Poppy ended up establishing
one of the first professional jewellery outfits in India using modern
practices coupled with ancient techniques. In the same year he was
a consultant with the Handloom and Handicraft Export Corporation,
a government organization, in Delhi, where he helped reproduced
17th century Indo-Islamic object-des-arts, using traditional techniques.
1986 Poppy set up India’s first jewellery-making school, where
he taught for the next four years. He proceeded to pass on his own
experiences and exposed an entire generation of people to the art
of jewellery-making. An indirect result, as he continued to experiment
and grow, was the Grand Prize at the third ‘Indian International
Jewellery Design Competition’1990, promoted by De Beers in
Bombay. For this competition he had designed a white and yellow
18ct gold ring with a princess-cut diamond, fabricated by Richard
Holkar at Bombay.
In 1992 Poppy was commissioned by the Standard Chartered Bank to
design a trophy for presentation to Prince Charles, on the occasion
of a prestigious polo match held in India.
In 1996 Poppy moved back to England, and started exhibiting his
work through leading craft and jewellery galleries in the West.
He has showed at the Chelsea Craft Fair, Barneys in New York,
and Concha Garcia in Madrid. He now has a workshop in Devon, UK.
