CRÈME DE LA CRÈME

From exquisite watches to award-winning liquor, here is our pick of Indian luxury

- BANDEEP SINGH

FLIGHT OF FANCY

THE SHEER IRIDESCENT brilliance of Abhisek Basak’s Absynthe Design Hummingbird Brooch will just grab your attention. Look closer, and what you’ll marvel at is its construction—with about 120 antique watch parts like the circular wheels, serrated gears, tiny springs and coils—forming the intricate body of the bird. It is an ode to the biomechanics of the bird in flight, expressed in steampunk—a design genre that uses the visual language of industrial age mechanics. “It is my dream of an alternate reality where prakriti, nature, goes hand in hand with pragati, [progress],” says the artist, who has been creating jewellery with antique watch parts since 2010. Basak is relentless in his pursuit of “artistic transformation” of the object he is working on. In the brooch, for instance, the bioluminescent feathers have been created using the exoskeleton of specially bred tropical jewel beetles and each piece takes about a week to 10 days to finish. Priced at ₹35,000 each, these hummingbirds are a steal, and are ready to fly away.

TOP BRASS