✨ Inside the Sketchbook: From Doodle to Drippy Piece

Let’s be real — not every piece starts with a divine download from the design gods. Some start as doodles in the margins of my to-do list. Some happen in the Notes app at 2:03 AM. Some, are just daydreams.            

But here’s the thing: design isn’t supposed to be pretty in the beginning. It’s supposed to feel. It’s supposed to poke at something inside you — a memory, a mood, a moment you want to hold onto. 

I was building endings for a baroque pearl necklace — the kind of design detail people rarely think about until it doesn’t work.
And instead of a standard clasp or clean-cut holder, I kept coming back to something older. Not ornamental for the sake of it — structural. A Jaipur jaali.

The jali — or lattice — is a repeating motif across Rajasthani and Mughal architecture.
Intricately carved into sandstone or marble, they were used in palaces to filter sunlight, create airflow, and offer privacy without isolation. They let light through — but on their own terms. It is intricate, has intention, and is almost loud in its symmetry. 

This sketch sat in the corner of my notebook for weeks. I flipped past it while working on “better” ideas. Cleaner ones. Pieces that made sense faster. But this one kept interrupting.

So I gave it a shot!

There’s no linear arc here. I carved, scrapped, reshaped, melted it mentally. There wasn’t a huge concept behind it. It just felt like something worth following.

There’s something deeply satisfying about ending a strand of irregular, ocean-grown baroque pearls with a fragment of architectural lace carved into metal. It’s form finishing function — literally.

And in a way, the contrast makes sense. Pearls, chaotic by nature. Jali, structured and intentional. Both shaped slowly. Both unpredictable in their own way.

Anywho, it really made me wonder, why should the ending of a necklace be invisible? Why not make the last detail just as considered as the first?

Got thoughts? We’re all ears.
Drop a comment or write to us at hi@ateapearl.com — we’re always looking for fresh takes and contributors for Side Dishes.