India is home to 22,000 tonnes of gold which reflects Indians love for yellow metal!

Hyderabad, July 24, 2016: Family physician, banker and family jeweller are no longer known or heard now. The traditional Goldsmiths have vanished atleast from Urban Cities. You can find some of them in some rural pockets, but in cities.

India is home to 22,000 tonnes of gold which reflects Indians love for yellow metal. But, still our per capita consumption of gold is just 0.7 grams, far less compared to the west, and it is half that of the US and one third of the Middle East according to World Gold Council(WGC). There are three lakh plus jewelers selling jewelry. These jewelers have taken away livelihood of the goldsmiths or family jewelers.

Hyderabad city alone is said to have 5 lakh gold 'karigars'. Despite being backbone of the glittering gold market, these highly skilled but illiterate karigars mostly work with traditional jewellery retail stores. So they are not available for common people.

Goldsmiths or family jewellers are metalworkers they specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. They are skilled in forming metal through filing, soldering, sawing, forging, casting, and polishing metal. Traditionally, these skills had been passed along through apprenticeships. Now jewellery arts schools have sprang up specializing solely in teaching the art and a multitude of skills.

Ever since the developments in the post-liberalisation era, the customer tastes have contributed to the eclipse of the traditional goldsmiths from the cities. Hundreds of goldsmiths have gone out of their occupation and the few who remained are reluctant to change are fighting a losing battle. The rising prices of precious metals have also curtailed the making of items to a large degree.

But, Diva Jewels under the leadership of Father and Son duo Mukesh and Rishi Mehta, made it a conscious effort to remain as family jewellers and going strong now. This family jeweller has been competing with machine-made jewellery and going strong too. These jewellers from Mumbai are coming to Hyderabd to create newPersonalised Jewellery Experience at Taj Krishna on August 27-28.

The show tilted Diva Galleria – Personalize Your Jewel Experience will be open to public and elite class of the city for two days. Among other things include exclusive display of limited pieces of Diamond, Gold and Jadav Jewellery, an exclusive design studio, where one can sit and design the jewel of their choice.

Also on spot cleaning and polishing of jewellery will be done free of cost, says Rishi. A new Bridal Collection for the season 2016-17 will be launched. An exclusive station will be setup for Men’s Jewellery. A selfie studio will give an opportunity to wear, flaunt and photographed with the jewellery you wish you bought, but not. All these are being done just to revive age old family tradition of “Family Jeweler” says Rishi, who is traditional yet modern.

The duo are so known that their clientele who comprise of some of the well known industry figures from various industries in Mumbai as well as in Hyderabad speak volumes about them.

Gold has been worked by humans in all cultures, either indigenously or imported. But, in the last few years, they are machine produced in large scale says Rishi Mahta.

Mehtas, family jewellery company Diva Jewels has survived the onslaught of many big retail jewellery brands.

It is perceived that nobody has time to go to family jeweller and place an order and wait for some time to get to see the piece. It is also assumed that this is the world of instant gratification, where people want everything readymade. But, somehow we have not only survived, but going strong for so many years informed Mukesh Mehta. We are here change and prove people that family jewellers are not less than any big time retailers, they say.

Infact, today being family jeweller is ou USP as our jewellery is customised and unique, unlike you pick and choose from massively produced designs on display in a showroom, they inform.

When we say customised and unique it doesn’t mean that customers have to pay more than what they pay in traditional stores. Infact they pay less, almost 25% or more, claims Rishi.

The reason for this is, “we sell our product even before it is made, unlike traditional stores who have to invest and maintain inventory. The inventory gets sold sometimes in months and sometimes in years. We have no such issues here”, says Rishi.

Also our jewellery is handcrafted. What you get here is what you want and not what somebody pushes. That is advantage with the family jeweller. We are a one stop shop for all jewelry needs. Be it a small nose pin worth 5000 to a bridal set worth more than 1 crore, says Rishi.

The clients have the option of taking trials and modify their orders during different stages just to ensure that they get the desired perfect look. Another advantage of family jewelers like us is having full control on manufacturing. There is a lot of importance given to maintaining top class finish.

A small number of excellent family jewellers still remain like us. But the concept is almost died. But, for our unique strengths, we wouldn’t have been survived. In 1990, when we set up our family jeweller boutique cum manufacturing setup Diva Jewels, we imported the best, latest and the most upto-date technology. So we have combined tradition with technology, that is why we have survived the competition, says Rishi.

Unlike big jewellery store, we don’t need to advertise. Customer loyalty, referral value, word of mouth are our best assets. Our jewellery is made to order, unlike 70 to 80 big time jewellery stores in India outsource their ready-made jewellery from bulk manufacturers. You are the designer of your own jewellery. You can make your own unique statement through your family jeweller, Rishi says and is proud being a family jeweller and he wants to keep that way only for the rest of the future.

You can trust family jeweller. You have known them for many years and can always rely on their expertise and shared traditional values., says Rishi. May their tribe increase.