Where Gold
Meets Glass.
Sonkanch is a Jaipur-based Thewa jewellery house keeping a four-hundred-year-old Rajasthani art alive. Thewa — literally "setting" — fuses 23K gold with hand-blown coloured glass, a technique perfected by artisans of the Rajsoni family in Pratapgarh, Rajasthan since the Mughal era. Every Sonkanch piece is handcrafted, IGI-certified, and rooted in that living heritage.
A Modern Take on Traditional Thewa Jewellery
Sonkanch was reconceptualised and rebranded in Jaipur by Vinita Malviya, Proprietor and Creative Head, alongside co-founder Amber Malviya of Malvia Exports, a handicraft export house running since 2001. A wife, a mother of twins, and an entrepreneur with a background in education, Vinita brought a fresh design sensibility to a craft that had rarely been reimagined for modern retail.
Together, they built Sonkanch as the ready-to-wear, or "pret," collection of Thewa jewellery — pairing Amber's decades of manufacturing and export experience with Vinita's eye for contemporary Indian design. The result is a brand built on three pillars: uncompromising quality, exquisite handcrafted design, and complete transparency with every customer who walks through our Jaipur showroom.
What Is Thewa Art?
Thewa is a Hindi word that literally means "setting." It is the centuries-old art of fusing 23K gold with multicoloured glass, born in the Pratapgarh district of Rajasthan, India, and traced back roughly four hundred years to the Mughal era. Every motif is hand-inscribed with a fine chisel — a discipline passed down through generations of the Rajsoni family, the artisan lineage still practising this dying craft today. Here is how a single piece of Thewa jewellery comes to life:
Beaten
A piece of pure 23K gold is hand-hammered into an impossibly thin, translucent sheet — the canvas for every Thewa design.
Etched
Using a fine chisel, artisans hand-engrave intricate floral, courtly and Mughal-inspired motifs into the gold sheet.
Fused
The engraved gold sheet is fused onto vividly coloured glass under carefully controlled heat and pressure.
Set
The finished glass-and-gold plaque is set into a necklace, earring, ring or bracelet — ready to wear as heritage jewellery.
Helping Revive a Dying Art
Despite four centuries of history, Thewa art had drifted to the edge of extinction, with only a handful of Rajsoni artisan families in Pratapgarh still practising it by hand. Sonkanch exists to change that trajectory — bringing this rare Rajasthani craft to a national and international stage, so that Thewa jewellery is recognised as fine art, not just remembered as folklore.
Every purchase from Sonkanch helps sustain the artisans behind the craft — protecting both a livelihood and a piece of India's cultural history.
"Vocal for local — giving four centuries of Thewa artistry a modern, glamorised form."
Sonkanch's mission goes beyond selling jewellery. By fusing traditional Thewa with complementary Indian art forms — Meenakari enamelling, Chittai filigree work and Jadaoo stone-setting — we give the craft new visual language for a contemporary audience. In the spirit of "Vocal for Local," every collection is designed to keep skilled Rajasthani artisans working, earning fairly, and receiving the recognition their generations-old craftsmanship deserves.
Explore Our Thewa Jewellery Collection.
Every Sonkanch piece is handcrafted with 23K gold and Thewa glass work, made in our Jaipur workshop. Browse our collection, or message us on WhatsApp and we'll help you find the right piece.
