Jewellery from the heart
By Jeevani Pereira
The first semblances of jewellery Shanmuganathan Chandrasekar remembers making were for his elder sister when they were hardly ten years old. “We were too poor to afford gold and I remember how she loved to have even a pair of earrings. I ended up making some out of leaf stems and then went onto make necklaces out of coconut leaves,” he said with a sad smile.
His voice betrayed emotion as he told us that in the early nineties his sister who was hardly into her teens and father had been killed during intense fighting due to the ethnic conflict, in their village Maddikaly in the Batticaloa District.
“This is how it has always been in Batticaloa Society. Gold jewellery is what is craved for by women and usually most of them cannot afford it. When they get married, they sell house and home to afford enough jewellery for status sake. That necessity often handicaps the beginning of a peaceful new life for a young married couple,” he remarked adding that among many things he wanted to change was the attitudes in people through his ‘fashion Jewellery.’
Most of all the creator of these simple yet exciting works told us that his jewellery collections was not only about earning money but mostly about sharing the art as well as much as changing the mindset of the society around him.
Going through the hand-made imaginative collection, a medley of sea-shell earrings and necklaces, handloom chokers and a beautiful pair of earrings made out of peacock feathers the woman in me was aroused beyond reasoning. I curbed, with the greatest difficulty, the desire to buy every single piece of jewellery that was on display. And Sekar, as he preferred to be addressed, smiled as he told me that it was the usual reception his work received.
Coming from an impoverished family whose situation was made worse after his father’s and sister’s deaths, Sekar said that he was determined not to give into the negativity that surrounded him. What gave him a new lease on life, he continued, was the ‘Third Eye’ which was Local Knowledge and Skill Activities Group founded by a local named S Jayasankar.
“Third Eye came about in 2002 to help young people especially from the villages of Batticaloa learn skills and acted as a forum for artistic expression,” he explained. “The Group has its own publications unit and workshops on painting and drama are done for young people besides other skills development programmes.” Thus, Sekar said he discovered himself taking part in Third Eye activities. It was through workshops that he realised he had a unique imagination and a knack for jewellery making.
“I suppose what started with my sister and what irked me about this obsession with gold and silver society has brought me where I am today,” he said with a smile adding that he started making small earrings and necklaces for friends who wanted to present them to their girlfriends in 2004. Then people I met from NGO’s, a lot of ladies saw my work and wanted me to make them small things,” Sekar continued. The demand for his jewellery began to grow in time and in 2007, he began to delve seriously into it after an opportunity to display his collection at the USAID Trade Fair that year.
“Batticaloa is known as the land of the Singing Fish, and some of what I create reflects that idea,” he said adding that his jewellery is very much environmentally inclined. “The handloom that I use for some of my pieces is from this area called Maruthamani which specializes in it in Batticaloa.”
Thus, discovering and improving himself each day, Sekar’s dream is to take his work to Colombo some day and maybe even abroad. “I want to further my knowledge of jewellery making at the Aesthetic Centre in India; but sadly I do not have enough resources for it but I know if I gain more experience, qualifications and add more value to it I will be able to take it beyond Batticaloa,” he said. “It’s not important how much I earn from it but I enjoy it as an art form, I want to learn more and be different in my skill; I want to make people see that there is Beauty and art in things beyond gold and silver,” he stressed.
For me, Sekar is a symbol of hope in this broken country and of the new generation dispelling the darkness created through years of disharmony and miscommunication. His hope and ideology despite all he has gone through, gave me hope that finally there is room to heal.
Dail Mirror
Saturday, March 14, 2009
