Why a kundan-style piece takes 14 days at the bench.

A common question from first-time customers: why does a kundan-style choker take two weeks at the bench when the design is already drawn? The short answer is that kundankari is a sequential process — eleven specialist benches in a single piece, each one waiting on the one before. No bench can be skipped, none can be parallelised. The long answer is the day-by-day count below, observed at our principal Johari Bazaar atelier in Jaipur.

Days one and two: ghaat. The base — gold-plated brass for our fashion-jewellery line, 22-karat gold for the precious-metal pieces sold elsewhere on the same street — arrives at the ghaat-saaz (frame-maker) bench. This artisan cuts the bezels (the depressions that will hold each stone) by hand, using a small chisel and hammer, working from a sketch glued to the metal. A simple choker has fifty bezels; a heavy bridal piece can have two hundred. Each bezel must be cut to within half a millimetre of the stone it will hold, or the foil-cutting step downstream fails.

Days three and four: paadh. The foil-cutter's bench. For traditional kundankari this is a sheet of 24-karat gold hammered thinner than writing paper. For our kundan-style line we use a gold-plated brass foil that mimics the optical effect at a fraction of the cost. The foil is hand-cut to fit the back of every bezel, then burnished against the stone with a small bone or steel tool. This is the slowest bench in the workshop; apprentices spend three to five years here before they are permitted to set a stone.

Days five through seven: khudai. The stone-setter's bench. For traditional polki this is uncut natural diamond; for our line it is kundan-style coloured glass and American-diamond accents. Each stone is set into its bezel, the foil-and-stone assembly pressed firmly, the bezel walls rolled over the stone's girdle to lock it in place. A skilled setter places fifteen to twenty stones a day. A choker with seventy-five stones is therefore four to five days of work, no shortcut available.

Days eight and nine: meenakari (optional). For the two-faced traditional pieces — kundan-set front, enamel-painted reverse — the piece moves to the enamel bench. The reverse is engraved with the floral pattern, the cells are filled with powdered glass and metal-oxide pigment, and the piece is fired in the kiln. Three to five firings, one per colour, with hand-polishing between each. We include this step on roughly forty percent of our kundan-style pieces; it adds two days of work but elevates the piece from "front-only" to "complete".

Days ten and eleven: jadai. The assembly bench. The hooks, clasps, chains, and pearl-strand bridges that connect the choker's panels are hand-soldered into place. This is where the piece becomes a wearable necklace rather than a decorated metal plate. A poor soldering job here is invisible at purchase but reveals itself within six months as the clasp tongue separates from the body.

Days twelve and thirteen: pakai and chillai. Final firing to set the soldering and final polishing with agate burnishers to bring up the antique-gold lustre. The piece is inspected by the master craftsman, who returns any stone that has shifted, any solder seam that is visible, or any plating thinness to its respective bench for correction. Half of all bridal pieces fail this inspection on the first pass and re-enter one of the earlier benches.

Day fourteen: shipping. The piece is wrapped in butter paper, placed in a cotton-felt pouch, packed in a small cardboard box with the certificate of provenance, and dispatched to the warehouse for customer fulfilment. From sketch sign-off to bench-finished piece, two weeks is the floor. Anyone selling a "kundan-style" choker on three-day turnaround is either drop-shipping pre-made stock from a different country or skipping one of the eleven benches. Both happen. Neither produces what arrives from a real Jaipur atelier.