How One Studio Is Channeling India’s Centuries-Old Jewelry Traditions into Furniture
Based in New Delhi and New York City, the 20-year-old design firm DeMuro Das has found its stride navigating two worlds, fusing history and modernity in work that feels quietly commanding. Since opening their New York City showroom in the summer of 2021, helmed by the duo’s U.S. partner and director, Amy Lee, they have consolidated production, setting up their own stone atelier inside their New Delhi factory. Bringing this process in-house has allowed the firm to explore and refine their stone marquetry, introducing the technique into curved surfaces and edges. It also made their new collections, Gem and Demi, possible.
While Das and DeMuro have worked with semiprecious stone for years, the five pieces in the Gem and Demi collections—two mirrors, a cabinet, and two tables—represent an evolution in design. An increased focus on experimentation and sourcing inspired the designers to make use of stones rarely seen in furniture production: stones like vesuvianite, dolomite, and jaspers (out of which the duo made a stunning biomorphic cocktail table, “in the spirit of Noguchi”).
The couture-level execution that is DeMuro Das’s hallmark means lines between multiple stone pieces are invisible to the naked eye and imperceptible to the touch, transforming complex structures into singular sculptures. The Gem cabinet is fully encased in claret dolomite and sits on four honed solid stone legs. It features cast-bronze handles, made in a lost-wax casting process and iterated in the frameless Gem mirrors, the faces of which are accented with bronze circles and complementary chunks of rough-hewn howlite, also encased in bronze through a technique reminiscent of a bevel setting in jewelry.
In a unique marriage of tradition and technology, handles are also made from 3D-printed molds into which solid bronze is cast. The Demi collection tables, named for the bisected cylindrical legs on which they stand, are clad in hand-pieced semiprecious stones: claret dolomite for the cocktail table, as seen on the cabinet, and green vesuvianite for the side table. And while the stones are laid by hand, computers help guide the process through numbering and diagramming.
The end result is a suite of furniture made with a fine-jewelry approach and a reverence for history. “This collection took several years to perfect,” Das says, referring to the intricacy of the stonework and craftsmanship. “We are thrilled that we can finally present it to the public.”
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