Hearts. Flowers. Butterflies. Emojis. Sculptural floating letters that spell out a name. Brand logos. In the world of oral jewellery, if you can imagine it, you can wear it on your teeth, and Frostbite Lab, a Mumbai-based jewellery brand, is making some of the most imaginative grills, or bejewelled mouthpieces, in India.
“When people think of grills, they usually think of hip-hop and of something that’s very loud and out there. But today, a lot of the designs are very minimal and can complement your everyday outfit,” explains Shrikesh Choksi, 30, the founder of Frostbite Lab.
Becoming a grill designer was never the plan. A Business and Finance graduate from the University of Southern California (USC), Choksi moved back to Mumbai in December 2019 and worked at a venture capital firm full-time while DJ-ing on the weekends. Then came the nationwide lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, and an oddly specific dream featuring A$AP Rocky. “It’s kind of embarrassing,” he laughs. “The dream was A$AP wearing a set of grills like he generally does. I woke up the next day thinking about how grills are made. And of course, it was in the midst of a lockdown, so we had all the time in the world to think of stuff.”
And think he did. Choksi spent weeks down a rabbit hole of YouTube tutorials, looking up grill artists across the world and setting up Zoom calls with them. “I spoke with experts from Brazil, New York, and Tokyo, and almost 20 dentists,” he recalls. The first step was to make a set of grills for himself.“ Luckily, I happened to have a friend here who is also a dentist. He connected me with his lab and helped me figure out the entire process.” Read Chloe Chou's conversation with the designer on The Nod.
