I am Rosalind from Maya. We are an artisanal jewelry brand from Mumbai, India. Maya was created to help revive lost craft traditions of jewelry making, but with a contemporary and urban narrative. We work with 19 families of artisans who had abandoned their traditional craft, to work as coolies and stone cutters, after migrating to Bombay in the late 80s. We also work with women from the slums, and wives of farmers, using crochet as a tool of empowerment. Our objective is to redefine “handmade” to include quality and design that is truly made by hand.

We thought the this platform was the most perfect stage to showcase Petrichor. Petrichor is a collection that draws inspiration from little critters, seemingly insignificant but crucial to our ecosystem.

A few years ago I turned part-time farmer too. It wasn’t until I started working with earth that I truly appreciated the role that insects play in the creation of a healthy ecosystem and good produce.

Most insects play a clear and obvious role in our ecosystem, some as pollinators, some are scavengers, some aid in pest control. The dragonflies are beautiful, you will often see them buzzing around. Did you know that they are carnivores, mosquitos being their primary prey. The ladybugs - so beautiful to look at…feast on aphids on crop and control them. Spiders control pests by trapping them in their webs, ground beetles feed on slugs and caterpillars… there are numerous examples of the benefits of having insects around. But, when one uses chemical pesticides, they carpet bomb all the insects around. So organic and chemical-free aren’t just trendy buzz words but important indicators of earth-friendly farming.

In cities when we see an insect, an ant, a bee, a beetle …. our first instinct is to kill it. I am not sure where this fear crept in our socialization, is it the disconnect with nature, or a spill over from the green revolution .. where insects were seen as pests.

With Petrichor we bring the attention back to these little critters. The thinking being that when we wear them, we are one step closer to being less afraid of them, and probably more tolerant of them.

Petrichor also aims to bring back conversations about where our food comes from? Gently nudging the wearer towards buying organic, of trying to reduce carbon footprint by buying local.

On a design note we have used the art of charrakkam and crochet in this collection, with semiprecious stones, brass and wood.

I hope you enjoy the pieces you see all around you and I would be very happy to share more stories about the bugs and the artisans who helped make the piece you love the most. Enjoy your week.