Floral Top Jhumka with Ruby Centre

A pair of jhumkas in gold-tone brass, set with cubic zirconia and coloured stones. They measure about 2 in. The design is built around an open flower. Photographed in Pink.

Design and detail

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.

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.

Materials

American Diamond is the Indian trade name for cubic zirconia, a crystal grown in a furnace rather than dug out of the ground. It takes a proper facet, holds a polish, and throws a little more coloured fire than diamond because it bends light harder. At this price it is the only stone that will give a design real light.

The broad rim around each coloured stone is the kundan idiom, carried over from a technique in which pure gold foil is pressed cold around the stone until it holds. Nothing here is gold foil, but the proportions are the ones that technique produced.

Shades and stock

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

It is plated brass — a gold polish over a brass body. That is what makes a piece this size affordable, and the brass is also why it has some heft rather than feeling like foil.

When to wear it

They suit hair tied back, and they go as happily with a plain cotton kurta as with silk — earrings are the one piece of Indian jewellery that never needs an occasion.

Costume jewellery earns its place by letting you wear a shape you would never commission in gold. Nothing here pretends to be precious; the pleasure is in the design, and the design is genuinely old.

Looking after it

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.

Rather than an add-to-cart button you will find an enquiry button, and that is deliberate: these arrive in small quantities per colour, and we would rather confirm the shade is in hand than refund you later. Keyura is prepaid only EM there is no cash on delivery on any order.