Before Lunaya, there was the factory: a note on Exxotic India
A note from our founder, Suyasha Lunawat, on the family factory in Jaipur where every Lunaya piece is made.
People often ask me who makes Lunaya. The honest answer is: the same family that has been making jewellery in Jaipur for three generations.
Every Lunaya piece is made at Exxotic India, our family's jewellery factory in Jaipur. Lunaya is the brand I started on top of it in 2018. The factory came first, and in many ways it still decides what Lunaya can be. So I wanted to write about it properly, once, in one place.
Where I learnt to look closely
As a child, I'd sit in my father's and uncles' office sorting stones as if I knew what I was doing. My cousin and I kept a box of the flawed ones and argued over who had found the best. Nobody sat us down and explained craft. You just absorb it when you grow up next to a bench: the detail is the work, and you learn to look closely before you learn anything else.
That office was part of the same family business that is Exxotic India today. It is registered in Johari Bazar, Jaipur's old jewellers' market, and has held a Government of India Importer-Exporter Code since 2003. Long before there was a Lunaya, there were karigars here cutting stones, casting metal and finishing pieces by hand, for clients in India and abroad.
Why Lunaya is built on a factory, not a supply chain
When I came home from New York in the summer of 2018, I had a notebook full of ideas and one advantage most new jewellery brands don't have: a factory that already knew how to make things well, and people in it who had known me since I was a girl.
That shaped everything about how Lunaya works.
- We can sample in days. A sketch can become a first piece on the bench within a week or two, so we test ideas in real metal rather than on a screen.
- Quality is checked at the bench. Problems are caught where the piece is made, not after it has shipped.
- We make runs of ten, not a thousand. Small batches let us listen to you and keep only the designs that earn their place.
- There is no middleman. Nothing passes through an anonymous supplier between my sketch and the person who files it.
It also means we don't chase every technique or trend. We make what our factory does well, and we do it carefully. I've come to see that limit as one of the best things about us.
What our RJC certification actually means
Exxotic India is a Certified Member of the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC), member no. 0000 5191.
The RJC is an independent, global standard for the jewellery industry. In plain words, it means someone who is not us comes in and checks how we work:
- How people are treated. No child labour, fair hours and fair pay, and a safe place to work.
- Where the metal comes from. Responsibly sourced and recycled metal, with records to show it.
- How we run the business. Environmental practice and business ethics, audited rather than just claimed.
We have followed RJC processes and used recycled metal from Lunaya's first collection. It is the reason I can say "made properly" and mean something specific by it: made properly, and checked by someone who is not us. You can learn more about the standard at responsiblejewellery.com.
What happens on the bench
A Lunaya piece moves through a lot of hands before it reaches yours. Roughly, this is the journey:
- Sketch, by hand. Often in a café abroad, sometimes on the back of a receipt.
- Model, in wax or CAD.
- Cast, in brass, in our factory.
- File and polish, by hand, on the wheel.
- Enamel, applied by hand, one colour at a time, then cured in a kiln. This is the slow part. Enamel takes days, and some pieces don't pass, so we reject them rather than ship them.
- Stone setting, by hand, for pieces that carry stones.
- Gold layer, applied by machine, by a process called magnetron sputtering, which bonds a fine layer of gold to the brass.
- Final polish and quality check, by hand, before anything is packed.
I'd rather tell you it's brass than let you assume otherwise. Most demi-fine jewellery is. What makes the difference is the gold layer, the hand-applied enamel, and the care at every step in between.
Jaipur, every day
Jaipur taught me colour before anyone taught me design: the pink walls, the jharokhas, the patterns carved around old gates, stones sorted by hand into shades that don't have names. Our karigars come from that same tradition. Their techniques go back generations, and they've adapted them for pieces you wear to work on a Tuesday rather than lock away for a wedding.
The ideas for Lunaya travel. I collect colour palettes and shapes from wherever I am. But the making never leaves home.
Why I'm telling you this
When you buy jewellery online, you're trusting a photograph. You can't hold the piece, you can't see the finish, and you don't know who made it or how. I understand that hesitation, because I'd feel it too.
So here is what I can tell you. Every Lunaya piece is designed by us, made in our own family factory in Jaipur, by people we know by name, under standards that are independently audited. When something isn't right, we can walk over to the bench and fix it.
That's Lunaya, really. Wearable joy, handmade in Jaipur.
If there's a part of the process you'd like to see more of, from the bench, the enamel or the people, tell us at hello@lunayajewelry.com. What would you want us to show you next?
Suyasha Lunawat
Founder, Lunaya