For Good Earth, 2021 has been all about celebrating the brand’s silver anniversary. And it’s been quite multi-faceted: with limited-edition launches, revisiting of classics — such as Iris Garden, a 20-year-old vintage design now revived with a fresh colour palette — and the launch of a new collection, Bosporus.
The most recent is a collab with British artist Rebecca Campbell for a line of tableware (as part of the Bosporus collection). “We worked together through online meetings, amidst lockdowns, and across two continents and time zones,” shares founder Anita Lal, explaining that it was the artist’s “whimsical yet poetic interpretation of nature and its many elements” that drew Lal to her. With the many whimsical elements Campbell created, “the collection evolved and grew into a comprehensive collection of platters and bowls, with many gift sets for tea and coffee along with a gorgeous dinner service”.
Rebecca Campbell working with watercolours
Edited excerpts from an interview with Lal.
The collaboration with Rebecca Campbell.
Rebecca Campbell has an eye for whimsy and detail. She comes from the lush Ireland countryside, surrounded by endless flora and fauna. During her early travels to India, she encountered iconic Mughal miniature paintings, which inspired her to incorporate animals, gardens, flowers, and fruits into her works. I had seen and loved her series of delightful vignettes during her visit to India. Apart from her amazing talent, I found Rebecca one of the nicest persons to work with.
The pomegranate motif is intrinsic to Good Earth. How different is Campbell’s interpretation?
The anaar or pomegranate has long been considered sacred, and revered as a symbol of fertility, prosperity, and abundance. When I gave Rebecca the theme of Pomegranates and Roses, she created a tree laden with ruby red fruit entwined with a rose creeper, and that was the start of a magical universe that included a pavilion and leopards and peacocks and hummingbirds and so much more. Rebecca used watercolours and sometimes gouache. Watercolour has such a wonderful luminous quality, and she wanted to keep the colours for the pomegranates sharp, fresh and jewel like. She used fresh pomegranates and roses for reference and to recreate it in painting.
A pasta coupe from the Pomegranates and Roses collection | Photo Credit: Pranoy Sarkar
How did the collection evolve?
There is a delightful Persian cookbook named Pomegranates and Roses, and both the book and its name have remained with me for years. I wanted to create a tableware collection that would embody this by capturing the delight of alfresco meals. Rebecca created the intertwined images of the two fragrant edibles: ruby red pomegranates and deep pink roses, ingredients that elevate cuisines across central Asia and the Mediterranean. Her beautiful sketches and artwork were converted into decals and applied to fine bone china dinnerware by skilled women artisans at the Good Earth atelier on the outskirts of Delhi.
From ₹3,500 onwards, on goodearth.in and Good Earth stores.