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Poppy Dandiya was born in India in the year 1955. He studied jewellery making
and gemmology at 'Sir John Cass', London, between 1980 and 1982. While still studying
he set up a small workshop in West Hampstead, experimenting and putting
into practice the things he was learning, and selling his creations
through Liberty of Regent Street, and the General Trading Co. at Sloane
Square.
In 1984, engaged by the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, as a design consultant for their ‘Festival of India’, he created two bead-necklace designs in silver and garnet which went on to become the Smithsonian catalogue’s best-selling pieces for the next four years. In the process Poppy ended up establishing one of the first professional jewellery outfits in India using modern practices coupled with ancient techniques. In the same year he was a consultant with the Handloom and Handicraft Export Corporation, a government organization, in Delhi, where he helped reproduced 17th century Indo-Islamic object-des-arts, using traditional techniques. 1986 Poppy set up India’s first jewellery-making school, where he taught for the next four years. He proceeded to pass on his own experiences and exposed an entire generation of people to the art of jewellery-making. An indirect result, as he continued to experiment and grow, was the Grand Prize at the third ‘Indian International Jewellery Design Competition’1990, promoted by De Beers in Bombay. For this competition he had designed a white and yellow 18ct gold ring with a princess-cut diamond, fabricated by Richard Holkar at Bombay. In 1992 Poppy was commissioned by the Standard Chartered Bank to design a trophy for presentation to Prince Charles, on the occasion of a prestigious polo match held in India. In 1996 Poppy moved back to England, and started exhibiting his work through leading craft and jewellery galleries in the West. He has showed at the Chelsea Craft Fair (1997), Barneys in New York, and Concha Garcia in Madrid. He now has a workshop in Devon, UK. Poppy’s jewellery is often made in mixed metals: a combination of silver, 18 karat white and yellow, and pure gold. He uses an eclectic assortment of gemstones including rough, abstract-cut diamonds. Poppy’s designs have an organic sculptural quality, incorporating his Indian heritage with a dynamic appreciation of the West, and involve several techniques that he has created and that are unique to him. The jewellery he now makes has, over time, been diversely described both as very modern and very ancient. Perhaps it has an element of the timeless. Poppy continues to design for a select clientele of jewellery lovers
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