Atreyi** grew up in an extended family of analytical men and artistic women, schooled in both the arts and sciences.
She was born in India and lived in other countries before settling down and becoming a citizen of the US. A technology professional who nurtured her passion for the arts with precious time squeezed in between work and family, Atreyi was part of the corporate world for 25 years and had the good fortune to be bought out as the Chief Operating Officer of a distributorship. An empty nest allowed her t
o focus on her creativity and love of jewelry. She enrolled in metalsmithing classes while selling her semi-precious stone and pearl jewelry through galleries in Westchester and Rockland. Her current lines are silver, 18k gold and precious stones, pearls and semi precious stone beads, sterling leaf servers in non-tarnish argentium*, and mixed metals – often with marriage of metals* and mokume* techniques in silver, copper, nickel, brass, and gold. Atreyi designs and crafts each piece, drawing from patterns in nature and organic forms filtered through the sensory prism of her life experience. She melds different elements reflecting beauty, balance, flow, harmony – creating elegant wearable art for the woman who defines her own style. The jewelry is produced using eco-friendly processes and material. Natural products are used for pickling, oxidizing and patinas. Fusing and lasers are used when possible in place of soldering. Textured precious metals are burnished and left polished to a low sheen. Atreyi feels blessed that she is able to pursue her craft and by the reaction to her lines. She is grateful to the many people who have helped her and looks forward to meeting her customers at retail shows.
** Atreyi is the ‘auspicious’ name given to Parbati Dasgupta by her grandfather based on the astrological chart at her birth.
* Marriage of metals is the technique of creating patterns with metal inlay or soldering together small pieces of different metals.
* Mokume is the Japanese technique of combining layers of different metals under heat and pressure then creating patterns of the metals by manipulating the resulting block (drilling, rolling, filing, hammering, twisting, sawing, etching etc).
02/28/2011
