Crescent Ear Cuff with Pearl Fringe

An ear cuff in gold-tone brass, set with cubic zirconia and worn on the upper rim of the ear, where it needs no piercing. The design is built around a cluster of stones. Photographed in Red.

A closer look

Massing small stones into a cluster is the cheapest way to get the light of one large stone, and it is how Indian jewellery has always answered that problem — the cluster has a far longer history here than the solitaire.

A fringe of drops hangs from the bottom edge, and its job is movement. A fringe catches the eye when the wearer moves; a static piece only catches it when the light does.

The drop below the cuff is a jhumka: a dome with a flared bell hung below it. The jhumka is probably the oldest surviving Indian earring shape, and the bell is what makes it swing rather than merely dangle.

Metal and stones

Cubic zirconia does the work. Known in India as American Diamond, it is a grown crystal, hard enough to hold a sharp facet edge and bright enough to carry a whole design on its own. Where there is colour it is glass, and that is the right choice — glass takes a deeper, more saturated colour than CZ ever will.

Where the coloured stones sit in flat rims of metal rather than claws, the piece is borrowing from kundan work. In true kundan, pure gold foil is burnished cold around a stone until friction alone grips it; it is one of the few setting methods that needs neither heat nor solder. Costume jewellery copies the look in plated brass, and the broad flat rim is the tell.

Shades and stock

One colourway is stocked, in Red — the shade the design was drawn for and the one in the photographs.

Underneath the plating the piece is brass, finished with a premium gold polish. The weight in your hand is the brass; the colour is the polish.

Because it clips rather than pierces, an ear cuff goes on and comes off in seconds. Seat it high on the ear where the cartilage is thinnest and it will stay put through an evening.

What you are buying at this price is design rather than material, and that is a reasonable thing to buy. The shapes here come out of a jewellery tradition several centuries old, and they work at a tenth of the weight and a hundredth of the cost of the gold versions.

Care and storage

Plating is a surface, so it wears where it rubs. Perfume and sweat dull it fastest, so spray first and dress second, then wipe the piece with a soft dry cloth. A zip-lock pouch with the air squeezed out really is the best storage — it is what keeps oxygen off the metal.

Checkout on this piece runs through an enquiry rather than a cart. Colour stock moves quickly at this price, so we confirm the exact shade, the price and the delivery estimate with you first. All Keyura orders are prepaid. We do not offer cash on delivery.