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Art of Enameling – Meenakari Jewelry

Art of Enameling – Meenakari Jewelry

The enamel work done on a metal surface is known as meenakari. The word Meena stands for enamel and the work ‘kari' is the art.
Meena (enamel) + Kari (the art) = meenakari (art of enameling)
To finish the reverse side of precious jewels, experienced craftsmen would enamel the product with various colors made of natural and treated substances.

Glass and other colored stones are crushed into very fine powder and prepared for enameling. Nowadays, chemicals including cobalt oxide, ferrous salts, copper salts and some other salts are used to enhance or create the color used in enameling jewelry. This is mixed in with various catalysts depending on the metal and color used.

This powder mixture is laid carefully in predefined boundaries of metal created by either soldering very fine outlines in gold or by hammering into the metal to create grooves where the color should fill in. The color is then ‘blown' in by heat torches to melt and fuse in with the metal surface. The trick of the art is to get the heat to just the right temperature where it will melt and fuse the glass into the metal without over heating it and getting it foggy or over melting the surface of the metal.

The final effect of meenakari gives a look similar to stained glass paintings. This technique has further been evolved into thewa art work but the original version in itself looks gorgeous to b with. You can get a range of colors, textures, shades and looks with meenakari which would be otherwise impossible to create in jewelry.

Meenakari is basically an ancient form of art in India that has been praised since its introduction for the superb designs and combination of colours. From the prime age of this craft, the artisans were named as `meenakar` who were involved in creating different Meenakari items. In some work, the entire object, such as pendant, is covered with this exclusive technique. On a typical pair of `kara` bangles with three-dimensional `makara`, elephant, lion or bird head terminals, additionally decorated with diamonds, rubies, and emeralds, as they often were, is a dazzlingly opulent object that embodies a galaxy of goldsmith arts. A special type is `ek rang khula mina`, in which single-colour transparent enamel fills all engraved area, leaving gold outlines exposed around figural details. `Pachrangi mina` (five-colour enamel) is a special multicoloured style of enamelling. The five colours used are `safed` (opaque white), `fakhtai` (opaque light blue) from `fakhta` (a dove), `khula nila` (transparent dark blue), `khula sabz` (transparent green), `khula lal` (transparent red).

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