Nazima Agate

We are based in Khambhat, right near the Jumma Masjid. This town is famous for agate work, and Nazima Agate is part of that long tradition. Our workshop is a place where you'll always hear the sound of stones being ground and polished. There is dust everywhere, mostly from the different colored stones we work with. It gets into your clothes and your hair by the end of the shift. We spend a lot of time sitting on the floor or at low benches, shaping the raw stones into something smoother. It's a craft we learned from our elders. Each stone is different, and you have to look at it closely to see how it should be cut. Sometimes the stones crack, which is frustrating, but you just pick up another one and start again. The area around the mosque is always busy with people walking by and the smell of local food. We don't have a showroom with glass cases. Most of our stuff is kept in bags or wooden crates until it's ready to go. It’s a messy process, getting the shine just right on a piece of carnelian or moss agate. We use water to keep the heat down when we're grinding, so the floor stays wet quite a bit. It’s a quiet kind of life, just focusing on the work in front of us. We might not have much space, but we make do with what we have here in the old part of town.