From Sculpting Faces To Carving Art Jewels
Prior to launching her eponymous jewelry brand, Dr. Anita Mandal spent 20 years practicing as a plastic surgeon singularly focused on sculpting beautiful faces. As an artist, her journey began at the early age of 5 when she dreamed of becoming a surgeon. With a keen sense of balance and proportion, an artistic eye and a desire to sculpt with her hands, plastic surgery was a natural first choice.
It was purely by accident that she discovered her passion for hand carving jeweled mini-sculpsures. Little did she know that, years later, she would harness the same skills cultivated as a plastic surgeon to create one-of-kind gem and diamond-encrusted works of art.
Coming from a background that fuses art, intellect and technical precision, she is able to seamlessly transition between sculpting faces in human form and carving art pieces in jewelry form. This unconventional approach gives her jewels a unique perspective.
Anita Mandal Jewels takes you beyond the realm of fine jewelry. It is a celebration of her evolution as an artist, capturing the entire spectrum of her journey – as artist, surgeon, intellectual and individualist – what she has been, who she is now and where she is going. It represents an unbridling of her creative vision – from working within the confines of the human form as a plastic surgeon to the boundless freedom of artistic expression seen through her art jewels.
Accustomed to contouring the face in 3-dimensions, she thinks more like a sculptor than a jewelry designer. Her surgical finesse and knowledge of intricate spatial relationships endows her with a natural ability to manifest highly sculptural art forms with their signature flowing curves to give the illusion of movement. She sees her pieces, not as jewelry, in the traditional sense, but more as gem and diamond-encrusted objets d’art to be worn with an architectural harmony that can be appreciated from all angles.
Constantly pushing her creative boundaries, each piece is a masterwork of cerebral curiosity. Self-taught, she personally hand-carves each complex art jewel, challenging the technical abilities she cultivated as a surgeon. Unlike many designers who come up with the idea, then pass it on to someone else to carve, the hand of the maker resonates through each of her art pieces.
Untouched by the norms of the jewelry world and not one to follow rules, she doesn’t make collections. Each bespoke and limited edition piece speaks to it’s wearer – creating a unique emotional connection. Made for uncommon tastes, her timeless mini-sculptures are highly individualistic and unapologetic in design and craftsmanship – a reflection of her own persona.
Passionate about both forms of artistic expression, she is devoted to her plastic surgery practice in the Palm Beaches as well as to the creation of highly sculptural art jewels. While the two careers may seem worlds apart, they have much in common. To translate the idea of a complex, 3-dimensional art jewel into a well-crafted, finished piece requires technical precision, artistic vision and a penchant for problem-solving. Multi-dimensional facial contouring to enhance one’s natural beauty is accomplished through an artistic eye, application of scientific knowledge and surgical finesse. Both require superior visual, technical and intellectual skills.
The creation of a complex jewel requires the same visual, technical and problem-solving skills cultivated through my first 20 years as a plastic surgeon. For me, only the medium has changed – from human form to jewelry form.
Click here to see Dr. Anita Mandal’s plastic surgery practice.