It’s easy to show your love when you work in the jewellery biz

February is the month of love. And it’s a long-held belief that nothing says “I love you” more than a piece of jewellery. So, it got us thinking: what do jewellery designers then make for their significant others? When your day job is creating beautiful, long-lasting pieces for others’ biggest life moments, how do you design something special for the woman or man in your life?

We reached out to five jewellery designers, some of whom work with their partners in the business, to ask them about the pieces they’ve created for their better half. What inspired them? How much input do they take? And how do their significant others like to wear them? As Pratik Shah of Estaa put it, this story was “an expensive but fun trip down memory lane” after wife Gayatri realised he hadn’t made her a piece in a long time.

Tara Daswani and Tanveer Daswani, Tara Fine Jewellery 

Tara: “I’ve designed quite a few pieces for Tanveer, starting from when we were dating. The first piece was a sword, but it also looked like the letter T, for both our initials. It’s in blackened gold with black diamonds on a long chain.

There have been pieces scattered throughout our relationship—cufflinks and buttons, for example—but I most enjoy making the ones he wants to wear daily. Most recently, he wanted a white gold and diamond Cuban link bracelet. It’s bling and he wears it everyday!

I wouldn’t design for him without his opinions, because they are strong! We have been working on a small collection of men’s jewellery, which is in the pipeline. I love making things for him and we continue to come up with new ideas.” 

Tanveer: “I love that her pieces never feel like jewellery; they feel like part of my identity. They have meaning, weight, and intention. The sword she made wasn’t really a fashion piece but more a reminder about standing my own ground. Her superpower is understanding the emotion and the story of the wearer.” 

Sajil Shah and Sanjana Shah, Sajjante

Sajil: “I designed a ring composed of sculpted gold spheres with a diamond subtly recessed into the central gold sphere. From certain angles, it catches the light and reveals itself. From others, it disappears. There’s a casual coolness to it. It’s a jewel she can wear every day. The spherical forms have a natural, sculptural sensibility that is very much a part of my aesthetic.

I know her instinctively—her style, her likes and dislikes. I understand what she gravitates toward and what feels natural to her. All she asked for was something easy, something she could wear without thinking. That word—easy—became the foundation. I wasn’t designing around a specific reference or trend. I was designing around a feeling. Casual. Effortless. Everyday.”

Sanjana: “I was the one who pushed him to start the prêt collection. I wanted pieces I could wear every single day, diamonds that felt cool, effortless, and natural. I often share references, moods, and silhouettes I’m drawn to. From there, he interprets it in his own sculptural language. This was the first piece from what became the Sfera collection, and he gifted it to me before it evolved into something larger. So, it carries that memory of that beginning.”

Pranay Mehta and Neha Mehta, Thakorlal Hiralal

Pranay: “Neha’s jewellery aesthetic is old-world charm with a hint of vintage glamour. She prefers to wear pieces that have been handed down from earlier generations, and even the new jewellery I make for her carries some flavour of eras gone by. Take for example this pair of earrings, which centre around a magnificent pair of rubylite tourmalines, which I have embellished with diamonds suspended from the base. Another piece she loves wearing is my grandmother’s old Burma pigeon blood ruby ring, which was made by my grandfather for my grandmother more than 60 years ago.

Having been married for 25 years now, I think I have finally figured out what works and what doesn’t! Neha loves jewellery that is fluid and not too heavy to wear. She loves understated designs and rare gemstones that are simply set, like a pair of stunning Colombian emeralds or lines of Basra pearls. Over the years, I have managed to acquire some beautiful, rare and natural fancy-coloured diamonds—yellows, pinks, and blues. These are extremely difficult to come by, and I am currently obsessing over a stunning design for her.” 

Neha: “Every time Pranay designs something for me, the idea comes from him and I add to it. The earrings are one of my favourite pieces because of the striking pomegranate pink with briolette rose-cut diamonds. It’s a perfect homage to old-world glamour. And I love the story behind the ring.”

Pratik Shah and Gayatri Parikh Shah, Estaa

Pratik: “Over the years, I’ve made Gayatri three pieces that she wears together or separately. At the top is the ta’wiz—an amulet meant to hold and protect charms or prayers. Inside are two tiny gold rice grains engraved with our children’s names, Aarya and Saahir. Below that sits a charm necklace that holds our shared history: there’s the logo for JB Petit High School (because we met at a JB jam), a mixtape that represents our courting days, a phone call for the time we spent apart, a ballerina for Aarya, and Jack-Jack [a character from The Incredibles] for Saahir. At the bottom is the Abracadabra amulet, inspired by a 6th-century talisman. The words carved on it mean ‘I create as I speak’. So, while the ta’wiz protects everything above it, Abracadabra is about creating what comes next.

Gayatri’s style is pretty simple—she likes clean, classic pieces. But designing for her is never straightforward. She runs Matchstick, a branding agency, and so has a great instinct for design. She sees things quickly, especially proportion and flow, so the bar is always high. It keeps me on my toes!”

Gayatri: “He’s edgy, I’m classic, which means our meetings sometimes resemble two creative goats locking horns. But that clash is where the interesting ideas live. Every relationship is a journey, and ours is 28 years strong. These pieces capture it all. We’ve grown, changed, and evolved, but this still feels complete.”

Akanksha Arora and Tarang Arora, Amrapali 

Tarang: “My mother gifted her an interesting piece—a line of simple, rose-cut diamonds—during the wedding, but we wanted to reinvent it. I love that evolution. I added bigger stones, pear shapes, and Colombian emeralds. I just made it edgier and more wearable.

In this piece she hasn’t given any input. I sourced the stones—it was about reusing and adding a twist to an existing piece. But, yes, from time to time I do take her inputs. I love to design for her. She is, in my mind, the perfect Amrapali client. She tests out most of my designs.” 

Akanksha: “This piece was special as it was given to me at my engagement. I wore it a lot earlier in our marriage. He added the emeralds to make it more modern. I end up being the practical voice with his designs—not too heavy, not too bulky, shouldn’t hurt or poke. Luckily, when he designs something I like, I end up calling dibs on it, and most of the time he sweetly does keep it for me.”