Station 01
The sketch
Every commissioned piece begins in pencil. Sketches and revisions go back and forth over several days before any metal is cut. Each design is logged with the customer brief.
Inside the atelier
Our Jaipur Atelier.
Heritage hands, on the bench.
A walk-through of the six stations every Nandai piece passes through — from the sketch on paper to the courier handover. Photography is currently a mix of catalogue product imagery and a stand-in ambient loop; verified workshop footage from Karan's Jaipur shoot will replace it.
From sketch to ship
Four steps, every piece. No exceptions.
Watch a real piece move through the workshop. These loops were shot last week — the bench, the kiln, the hands are real and currently working on the orders behind these videos.
- Step 1 · Sketch
The piece starts in pencil. The designer and the customer trade revisions over 3–5 days before any metal is cut.
- Step 2 · Setting
The brass base is shaped, kundan-style polki and American diamonds are seated, and each bezel is burnished closed by hand. The antique-gold shimmer comes from the plating.
- Step 3 · Enamel finish
Meenakari-style enamel is hand-painted onto the gold-plated base in layers — peacock blue, parrot green, cinnabar red — and cured between coats, then polished by hand.
- Step 4 · Inspect & ship
The piece is quality-inspected for plating and stone-set, photographed, packed into a hand-stitched cloth pouch, and the package is hand-addressed.
The six stations
Six benches. Every piece. No exceptions.
The same six benches handle every order — whether it is an off-the-shelf catalogue piece or a commissioned custom set. The materials are fashion-jewellery; the hands are heritage.
Station 02
The setting bench
Kundan-style setting is hand-work. Each kundan-style polki or American-diamond stone is seated into a plated brass bezel and the bezel is burnished closed. The antique-gold shimmer comes from the quality plating, not the polish.
Station 03
The enamel station
Meenakari-style enamel is hand-painted onto the engraved gold-plated base in layers, cured between coats, then polished. The colours echo the traditional palette — peacock blue, parrot green, cinnabar red — and are applied by Jaipur artisans.
Station 04
The polish station
A traditional finish: bamboo skewers, rouge powder, and chamois leather. Three passes per surface; the last one is done by hand.
Station 05
Quality inspection
Every piece is hand-inspected for plating consistency, stone setting, and finish before it leaves the workshop. The Nandai trademark card travels with the piece — proof of design provenance and care guidance.
Station 06
Packing and ship
Pieces ship in a hand-stitched cloth pouch, in a protective outer box, via insured courier. International orders go signature-on-delivery.
What you are buying
Base, stones, enamel — explained once, properly.
Three materials carry the entire catalogue. Nandai is a fashion-jewellery brand — gold-plated brass, kundan-style polki, American diamonds, hand-painted meenakari finish. If you have ever wondered what those terms actually mean, this is the part of the site that finally clears it up.
Base
Gold-plated brass.
┌─ Antique-gold finish
│ (quality plating)
│
└─ Brass alloy base
(structural body)Nandai pieces are gold-plated brass — a quality plating in our signature antique-gold tone over a brass alloy body. Traditional Kundan uses thin gold leaf over a heavier gold structural body; we reinterpret that visual language in fashion-jewellery materials so the heritage aesthetic is accessible at ₹1,500–3,000.
Gold-plated · brass alloy body
Stones
Kundan-style polki & American diamonds.
Kundan-style polki = faux uncut stones American diamonds = cubic zirconia (CZ) Faux pearls = glass / shell beads
Traditional polki uses uncut natural diamonds and Kundan uses uncut natural colour stones. Nandai pieces use kundan-style polki (faux uncut stones) and American diamonds (cubic zirconia, the Indian fashion-jewellery standard for CZ). The setting technique honours the heritage look without the precious-stone price tag.
Faux stones · hand-set in plated bezels
Enamel
Meenakari-style finish.
Hand-paint → cure → polish ↓ Hand-paint → cure → polish → finish
Traditional Meenakari fuses powdered glass to gold at ~900°C. Nandai uses a hand-painted meenakari-style enamel finish on gold-plated bases — peacock blue, parrot green, cinnabar red — applied and cured in layers by Jaipur artisans. The visual language of Meenakari, in fashion-jewellery form.
Hand-painted in Jaipur · gold-plated base
Authenticity
What we can actually stand behind.
Nandai is a fashion-jewellery brand — gold-plated brass, kundan-style polki, American diamonds. We tell you exactly what each piece is made from and who made it. No marketing dressed up as certification.
- ® TMNandai ArtTrademark registered, India
- JAIPURHandcrafted in JaipurDesigned and assembled in our Jaipur workshop
- GSTGST-compliant invoicingEvery Indian order ships with a tax invoice
The craftsmen
The hands behind the bench.
Four roles, four placeholders. Real names, generations, and quotes ship after our next Jaipur photo shoot — we do not fabricate artisan identities, so the slots are visibly empty until they are real.
- Kundan-setting[Kundan-master name pending][Nth generation kundan-setter — pending]
“[30-word quote pending: artisan reflection on inherited setting technique, the role of the bone burnisher, what they look for when seating a kundan-style stone in the bezel.]”
- Meenakari enamel[Meenakari-painter name pending][Nth generation enameller — pending]
“[30-word quote pending: painter reflection on the peacock-blue palette, the layered hand-painted process on gold-plated bases, what makes the cinnabar red sit right against parrot green.]”
- Polish & finish[Polish-master name pending][Nth generation polisher — pending]
“[30-word quote pending: polisher reflection on the three-pass bamboo-and-rouge finish, why the last pass is always by hand, and how the antique-gold tone is judged by eye.]”
- Inspection & QA[Inspector name pending][Nth generation in the trade — pending]
“[30-word quote pending: inspector reflection on the plating-consistency check, the stone-set audit under raking light, and what makes a piece worth the Nandai trademark card.]”
Workshop visits
By appointment, for serious partners.
We welcome serious B2B partners and stylists to visit the atelier by appointment. Tea is included. We don't pitch — we show you the bench and let you ask anything.
- Location
- Nandai Atelier
[Street address pending — Johari Bazaar lanes]
Jaipur, Rajasthan 302001
India - Booking
- Email hello@nandai.store at least 48 hours ahead with your visit window and what you'd like to see on the bench.