Sohavi Press

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An article designer Nicci Dhamu wrote on her Sohavi Journal, written in grief honouring her mother's creative legacy, was the catalyst for a highly unexpected family reunion.

Nicci Dhamu and her mother on the cover of The Guardian

In Nicci's words:

“It started with a sparkle. I grew up watching my mum be creative — stitching, painting fabric, crocheting, transforming threads into beauty with quiet, yet beautiful skill. She didn't just make things. She infused them with her love and her life. It's from her, truly, that Sohavi Jewellery was born. I wanted to create jewellery that was more than an accessory — a keepsake, a memory, a way to hold love close.

My mother, Savinder Kaur Dhamu, passed away quietly in her sleep in the early hours of 20th December 2024. She was 88. In the months that followed, I found myself writing — not as a designer or a businesswoman, but as a daughter in grief. I wrote about her hands, her creativity, her dressmaking certificate earned in 1962 when she briefly reclaimed the education that had been taken from her. I wrote about finding that certificate among her belongings and feeling the pride she must have felt holding it. I wrote to make sense of a loss I wasn't ready for.

That piece — I Inherited Her Light — sat quietly on the Sohavi Journal. I didn't know who would read it. I didn't know it would travel across the world.

Avtar Singh had spent years searching for a mother he had never seen or known. On the off chance whilst he was on holiday he typed my mums name Savinder Kaur , age 87-97 , lived in Africa , India possibly - UK into ChatGPT. What came back was my article. My grief. My mother's story. And through it, he found me — his half-sister and two other siblings and his whole maternal family.

Sohavi has always been a love letter to my mother and the legacy she left me — not just in thread and fabric, but in storytelling imbued in metals, adorning the wearer to feel strength, spirit, and soul. I never imagined that same storytelling would one day bring my own family back together. But perhaps that is exactly what she would have wanted.”