Our story

Maalicious was born out of a desire to empower women artisans in India. We want to innovate and create quintessential jewelry with a rich dose of tradition. Our goal is to provide talented women artisans  with a platform to shine, thrive and succeed. Our inspiration is Indian, tribal and historic, and you will see that inspiration steeped in all our pieces. Designed in NYC and made in India for the women of the world, we are proudly also a women-only run firm. 

The name is an amalgamation on the Indian word for jewelry, "maal", with the the word "malicious" to add a bit of naughty. Each piece of jewelry tells a story from the past, and is made with attention to detail. Scroll through and enjoy our new take on traditional art. As an organization completely run by women, our vision is to ensure marginalized women are  economically empowered to build their own future.

 

Maalicious was born 2 years ago as a pet project conceived at my home in New York. I partnered with differently-abled students studying jewelry in Mysore, India, on my visit to India a few weeks later. A lot of research, learning, sweat and blood later, we've grown into what Maalicious is today. I have tried to give each one of you something special while holding the values of quality, labor rights and sustainability paramount. All our earrings are 24K gold dipped, some of our artists get over 50% of the proceedings from the jewelry and a few of our earrings are made using sustainable material like clay.

I look forward to what our future has in store for us. I want to explore the possibility of enabling the talented women in India and helping them with our profits. I hope you will hold our hand and ride this journey with all of us here at Maalicious.                                                                                                                

Love,

Poonam Thimmaiah,

Founder.

I truly believe in silver linings, in seeing beauty in the unexpected, in finding strength in pain. I had regular anxiety attacks, and I escaped them by forcing myself to watch tutorial videos of miniature clay work. What started as a aimless distraction, soon got me wanting to actually try my hand at polymer clay sculpting. After several attempts, I successfuly burnt my first set of creations :) The next set of charms I baked got my college classmates excited, and some of them even bought a few and encouraged me to sell my creations online.

It’s been 3 years since I burnt that first collection and I've come a long way. I recently decided to make a profession out of my passion and registered my company. Every woman deserves to be financially independent as it breaks the timeless cliche that a woman has to be ‘provided’ for. This independence brings along confidence, courage, and a sense of authority over oneself!

If a woman can do this by pursuing her passion, the inner peace is boundless: I am a testament to that. Today, I'm excited to be sharing my journey and work with you through Maalicious.

Shruti Mascarenhas:

My first memory is that of the smell of clay in my grandmother's kitchen when I was just 10. I asked and learnt that the mud pot that my grandmother and mom cooked in, emitter the different flavors in the curries I always relished. I was mesmerized and found it extremely cool that one could make your own pots to help people cook and share their culinary expertise in. Trying to make them, however, was way more difficult a task than I imagined it would be.

As I grew older, I was continually inspired by various pottery ware around me and eventually took to learning the art and perfecting it many years after. I decided to study fine arts and was accepted into the top school, MSU, in Vadodars, Gujarat. I majored in Sculpture and minored in Pottery. I also pursued my BFA and then MFA, with a specialization in Ceramics. This particular interest of mine has kept things exciting and enjoyable for me till date.

My passion for pottery and ceramics has and continues to inspire many. With hard work and determination, any dream is possible, no matter where you come from. It is no longer hard for me to make my own ceramics pots which serves as an evidence to my work ethics and passion. I learn something new everyday and feel lucky to have such a wonderful, labor intensive passion for my job. For Maalicious, I create beautiful hand painted clay pieces like the portraits of Victoria repeat, vintage and Amrita Shergill in my own studio in Goa, India.

Nirmitee: