Filmy trinkets

Jazz up your jewellery collection with earrings, tags and accessories crafted by an arts studio out of 16-mm found footage

When the team at Andheri-based Harkat Studios was curating their 16mm Film Festival in December last year, they chanced upon a pile of found footage reels. “We usually conduct a workshop to use discarded film footage during the festival every year. But this time, it was digital. So, we began to discuss what we could do with it,” shares Michaela Talwar, co-founder, Harkat Studios. And the result of the brainstorming that followed is Filmware: earrings, tags, bracelets and pendants made using 16mm found footage “sourced from forgotten godowns across the country”.

Michaela Talwar

Available for sale on their online shop, the celluloid collection currently boasts of just earrings and tags, but Talwar tells us that they are in the process of launching other trinkets with a unisex appeal. Crafted out of strips of film reels that have been gathered from a time period spanning the ’50s to the ’90s, the earrings — hoops, double hoops and drop-style - make for funky statement pieces with a retro vibe. Talwar states that the jewellery has been fashioned in-house. “When we work with celluloid, we often manipulate it in a very physical form, by scratching on the surface and painting on it, so we had fun playing with film reels for the collection,” she adds.

Two earrings and a bag tag from the Filmware collection. Pics/Harkat Studios

Talwar reveals that what’s also special about the pieces from Filmware is that each one is unique, as the reels carry their own history. “For instance, a lot of the films are from Chor Bazaar, and what the people there did is attach a bunch of reels together. So, it’s possible that if you have a reel in hand — it can consist of a music video, documentary or wedding shoot,” she explains, adding, “And when you wear it, you end up with your own story around it.”

But it’s not just celluloid that they’ll be working with. Talwar informs that they’re also in the process of upcycling products that are discarded on sets, and their upcoming collection will comprise bags fashioned out of used fabric.

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