Beautiful and bizarre things to buy: From Jacobsen’s salt to a Cougar Tie Pin

For Your Sole: Jutti by Fizzy Goblet X Payal Singhal

‘Fiori Felici’—a line born from a collaboration between the handcrafted footwear brand Fizzy Goblet and designer Payal Singhal—combines pastel botanicals with embroidery, making the traditional jutti chic.

Fizzygoblet.com; Rs2,700-3,450.

Tracking Titles: Show Room by Love Birds

This zine of poster-art curated by Lovebirds features works from visual artists and photographers, including Sameer Kulavoor, Bharat Sikka, BLOT!, Thukral & Tagra, Anushree Fadnavis and more.

Love Birds, Hauz Khaz Village, Delhi; Rs1,250.

Keepsake-Craft: Miniature model of the Vatican dome

A tiny replica of the Michelangelo-designed dome of the Vatican, the original of which sits in the Vatican Museum, Italy. Made of cherry wood.

Designerstudio.co.in; Rs31,300.

Wearable Art: Cougar Tie Pin by Shivan & Narresh

Cougar Tie Pin by Shivan & Narresh

For a collection called Confluence, designers Shivan & Narresh crafted this tie-pin studded with Swarovski crystals and set in brass.

At www.ogaan.com, Rs4,990.

This Is Lit: Erratic Lamp by Bent

Erratic Lamp by Bent

Not just light, this wood lamp brings some postmodern whimsy into interiors.

Bentchair.com; Rs9,999.

Compiled by Komal Sharma.

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By Invitation: Vanities

An ode to things you don’t need but must have

Jacobsen’s salt.

This week: Jacobsen’s salt

Everyone has their weakness.

Mine is salt.

I collect it. Colleagues and friends know that it is the best gift to get back for me from their holidays. So I now have salt infused with wasabi, hibiscus, and truffle.

But I am most particular about the plain salt that I consume.

For years, it was Maldon. Their sea-salt flakes are sublime.

More recently, I have lost my heart to Jacobsen’s salt.

It is harvested from the cold, pristine waters of Netarts Bay on the Oregon Coast in America. There are several reasons why the water in Netarts Bay is the perfect source of salt. It has very few freshwater inputs, which leads to higher salinity. It also has a massive population of oysters that act as a natural filter for the salt.

The company’s founder, Ben Jacobsen, developed an obsession with salt after his stay in Denmark. In 2011, he founded Jacobsen Salt Co., the only salt company to harvest salt in the Pacific Northwest since Lewis and Clark.

The salt is harvested by human hands. And Jacobsen looks for some simple virtues in the salt that he produces. The first is evidently the taste. It has to be super clean and grainy in taste. The texture: light and flaky. And finally, the colour: beautiful, white, shiny flakes.

Many years ago, I was told that Zubin Mehta carried a bunch of green chillies with him every time he ate out. He carried them in an elegant silver box.

I love the Jacobsen tins. They are portable and make every meal palatable.

If you are a purveyor of meats like me, salt assumes a strategic position on the table. It adds an altogether different fabulousness to a fillet. And sprinkling your own salt also feels therapeutic (and reassuring).

Robert Baden-Powell once said: “Life would pall if it were all sugar; salt is bitter if taken by itself; but when tasted as part of the dish, it savours the meat. Difficulties are the salt of life." How delicious.

Two-pack Signature Pure Sea Salt Slide Tins for $5 (around Rs320) from www.jacobsensalt.com.

By Swapan Seth , CEO, Equus