Gulabi meenakari silver jewellery brand

This business designs and sells silver jewellery decorated with gulabi meenakari, the pink enamel work of Varanasi. Powdered coloured glass is fused onto the silver in a small kiln, and fine pink flowers are painted on and fired again. Your range could include earrings, pendants, bangles, cufflinks and brooches, made in your own workshop or by artisans on order.

Gulabi meenakari is a GI (Geographical Indication) craft and one of the district's One District One Product items. NABARD's 2023-24 credit plan says Varanasi has been set up as a hub for GI products to help artisans get better prices. Most workshops still sell to a dealer, so a brand that sells directly can pay artisans more and still earn a fair margin.

You need a workshop with a kiln and hand tools, a stock of silver, good photographs and a website. Register as a GI authorised user so you can show the GI mark. The hard part is money tied up in silver, whose price moves often, and finding enough skilled enamel artisans, as their number is small. Painted imitations are sold as meenakari, so explain clearly what makes yours genuine.

Sell through designer boutiques, online stores, wedding and craft fairs and companies that buy festival gifts. Visitors in Varanasi can also come to see the workshop.