Floral Pendant Chain Set with Pearl Jhumkas

A necklace set in gold-tone brass, set with cubic zirconia and coloured glass stones. It gathers the whole design into one pendant hung on a plain chain. The design is built around an open flower. Photographed in Green.

A closer look

Flowers in Indian jewellery are rarely botanical. They are stylised into a repeating unit that can be scaled up or down to fill any space, which is why the same bloom turns up on a ring, on a necklace and on a temple door.

The earrings are jhumkas: 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.

What it is made of

The white stones here are cubic zirconia — American Diamond, or AD, in the Indian trade. It is grown rather than mined, cut to the same geometry as a diamond, and noticeably more dispersive, so it breaks white light into visible colour. That dispersion is the quality you are actually buying.

Those flat metal rims around the coloured stones are a kundan borrowing. Kundan setting beds a flat-topped stone in soft gold worked cold around its edge — no claws, no heat. The shape it leaves behind is the most recognisable thing in Indian jewellery, and it survives here in plated brass.

Colour options

One colourway is stocked, in Green — 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.

Wearing it

Wear it with the neckline bare — a boat neck, a deep round neck, or a blouse cut away at the throat. A necklace at this weight competes with a dupatta pulled across the chest, so pin the dupatta back off the shoulder.

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.

Looking after it

The care is simple and it matters: no water, no perfume, no chemicals on the metal. Wipe it dry after wearing and store it sealed rather than in open air, because humidity is the enemy of any plated finish.

Size and fit

Buying this as a gift is straightforward, because nothing here needs a size. The fit is fixed or adjustable rather than measured, which removes the one thing that usually goes wrong with jewellery bought for somebody else.

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. Payment is prepaid in every case; cash on delivery is not available.