We recently connected with Harshika Amin and have shared our conversation below.

Harshika, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?

I ask myself this question at least once a week. The answer has been different each time. It’s an important point of evaluation on how far I have come and where I need to get to. It is also important to me that I not only love my work but also that I am happy doing it. I can say I am happy most of the time, and it is truly a gift to be able to follow my dreams. The alternative of having a regular job, yes it might be easier in some ways, although it is not something I would ever want to go back to. Everything I know about running my business, like many others like me, I have learnt from workshops/classes, conversations with other small business owners but mainly through a lot of trial and error. I love solving the challenges that come up in my journey, but it can get exhausting and frustrating and I can get stuck in a slump for months at a time. And when this happens, I think of happiness like a cookie jar. At the core of being a small business owner is my work as a Jewelry artist and a Somatic movement practitioner, and this fills up my happiness jar. This fuels me as I am working my way through the rough patches. Sometimes I get an entire cookie and sometimes it’s just crumbs.

Harshika, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

One of the most important things I have learnt about myself is that I enjoy working across different disciplines and media simultaneously. I am an architect who fell in love with dance and theater. I am a trained dancer and have been a performer for a few years before immersing myself into the world of craft. I am a Jewelry Artist and I love working with my hands, it has always meant a lot to me. Trivial PURSUITS was born from the love and passion I feel for art, design and craft. The artisan brand is a means to share the joy of craft, with bold and contemporary jewelry and handcrafted objects. I chose the name as an ode to many different art and craft forms I pursue. It also signifies my pursuit to make my place in this world. My ideology is that answers to some of the extraordinary questions of life lie within the pursuit of the simple and ordinary, like working with my hands. The name is a satire, and celebrates the pursuit of all things “trivial”.

My jewelry reflects a design style heavily influenced by my South East Asian Roots and culture with a Contemporary twist. I make jewelry that is also 3-dimensional and very geometrical crafted from ideas inspired by nature. Each piece I create is one of a kind in every sense, as I only make one of each. I make jewelry that is striking, and can be larger than life. It is bold, expressive and elegant, just like the people who choose to wear them. I believe through my jewelry I am able to connect with people who are on similar journeys of their own; people who aren’t afraid for their voices, bodies and expressions to occupy space in this world.

I am also a Certified Movement Analyst and a trained Somatic movement educator. I am passionate about all things related to the human body and movement. I have embraced the fact that my creative practice will always be multifaceted and I have been working towards building an unified practice where information, skill, knowledge and experiences from one informs another.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Everything doesn’t have to be perfect! Working towards perfection is a tough lesson to unlearn. I have learnt this the hard way. When I first started my business for a very long time, I would not put out content on social media (I still struggle with this) or apply to pop up art and craft shows because I was stuck on this idea of how perfect the write up needed to be or that the photographs were not good enough. I spent so much time obsessing over details and words, I was stagnant and I felt I lost out on a lot of time. I could have been learning, honing my skills by putting my work out in the world. When your work is out there, you get feedback and advice on how to improve and that is invaluable. I feel my write ups improve each time I apply to shows or put my work out in the world. The lesson is that you live, you learn and it is a journey.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

I love the online courses that Jewelry artist Megan Auman has on running a jewelry business. Also these books: Making a life by Melanie Falick, This long thread by Jen Hewett and Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer have a big influence on my thinking and Philosophy

Contact Info:

• Website: https://trivialpursuits.co/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_trivialpursuits_/

Image Credits
I have photographed most of the pictures. In the pictures that I am present my husband Jinesh Jain has shot them.