Making of Lai

Every piece of our silver jewelry is handcrafted in 92.5% silver. To make silver durable enough for use in jewelry, pure silver, which has a .999 fineness (99.9%), is often alloyed with small quantities of copper (7.5%) to provide strength- resulting in the industry standard of .925 'Sterling Silver' (92.5%). Our designs bear a '925' stamp to indicate the purity and also a 'Lai' stamp to authenticate their origin.

It takes a lot to manifest these pieces into works of art.

Granulation or rava work: Each 'rava' or granule is applied to the desired spot with the help of tweezers.

Left: Heating the metal to solder- notice the long narrow mouth pipe used to direct the air flow- how remarkably similar it is to the one used centuries ago, by the goldsmith in the vintage sepia picture above. Right: Adding wire work to the base units.

Setting the 'Bidri' units onto silver jewelry units.

Removing excess metal around the collet after stone setting.

Enameling and stone setting on a bead.

Individually pave' setting seed pearls onto a bangle.

Hammering sheet metal into shape.

Each Lai piece, thus created, using a mix of traditional and modern techniques, is further finished as per design (glossy, matt, oxidized etc.), thoroughly inspected, and carefully packed before its on its way to you.