Nolwa Studio’s Bidri Collection: Redefining Indian craftsmanship with contemporary innovation

Award-winning Nolwa Studio, based in Hyderabad, operates at the intersection of contemporary design and traditional craft, creating collectable objects of artistry and utility that challenge conventional perceptions of Indian artisanship. Inspired by India’s rich artistic traditions, their unique design interventions make heritage crafts relevant in contemporary contexts. Their debut collection, which launched at Design Miami, Basel, this year, focuses on India’s ancient metal-inlay technique, Bidri, bringing its practitioners together with breakaway approaches and global designers.

Nolwa Studio’s founder and creative director, Rohit Naag, moved back to India after his INSEAD MBA and studies at Duke University, as well as work across renewable energy, consulting, and agribusiness in the US, Europe, and Asia, to discover that his passion for design could become work. He was struck by the incredible workmanship and knew that he needed to explore the traditions in a deeper way.

Rohit realised that the artisanal products available failed to showcase the richness of the crafts. “Typically people think of luxury design and craft as being European like Murano glass and Italian leather,” he says. “It’s not often that Indian craft forms are considered on an equal footing. But there is no reason for us not to be playing at the same level.”

He went on to study 12 clusters in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to understand their processes and limitations. Among these, Bidri, a 600-year-old metal-inlay craft from Karnataka, stood out for its intricacy and potential for contemporary reinterpretation.

Together with Ammar Kalo (UAE), Arielle Assouline-Lichten (USA), Gunnar Rönsch and Stephen K Molloy (Germany), Nolwa Studio co-developed their inaugural collection, the Bidri collection. The collection pioneers new applications, forms, and scale, for the 600-year-old Bidri craft, ultimately challenging its foundational conventions. The technique, thought to have entered India from Persia, is typically featured on 10-12 inch figurines — Nolwa Studio introduced significant design and engineering innovations to create three-dimensional pieces that are upwards of 5 ft.

Although a painstaking process, incessant optimism and joy have kept Rohit focused. “Mucchata is a term in Telugu,” he says. “It can be explained as the feeling you get when you become present to something that evokes delight or wonder; it’s the intrinsic joy that comes from pursuing that thing. This is what gave rise to Nolwa.” Only after five to six years of research and development and extensive prototyping with Bidri master artisan MA Rauf and his eight person-team, has Nolwa Studio realised their collection. As National award-winning craftsman Rauf explains, “I have always wanted to innovate the craft, and meeting someone like Rohit, who persisted and experimented for years meant we were able to overcome multiple challenges.”

The Bidri collection comprises four unique pieces. The collection will be shown at the India Art Fair 2025 where they will launch a new bar cabinet incorporating a design informed by parametric architecture.

—manuvipin@newindianexpress.com