Long CZ Chain Set with Green Pendant

A necklace set in gold-tone brass, set with cubic zirconia and coloured glass stones. It drops low on the chest, so it reads as a statement piece rather than a collar. The design is built around a geometric panel. Photographed in Green.

Geometric settings arrived in Indian jewellery with Art Deco in the 1920s and never left. They suit cubic zirconia particularly well, because a machine-cut stone is already a geometric object.

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.

Colours and availability

It is stocked in 3 shades: Green, White and Red. The photographs show one of them and the swatches on this page show the rest; the shade you choose is confirmed on your enquiry before anything is charged.

Metal and stones

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.

A closer look

Keep the rest of the upper body plain. With a piece this size the necklace and the earrings are the whole ornament — skip the chain, skip a second pendant, and let the neckline do the framing.

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.

Care

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.

Stock on these runs in small lots. When a colour sells out it is usually gone for good rather than reordered, because the supplier moves on to the next design — which is why the enquiry step exists and why we confirm the shade before taking payment.

This piece is listed for enquiry rather than instant checkout, because stock on the colour you want has to be confirmed before we take money for it. Use the enquiry button on this page and we will come back with availability, the final price and a delivery window. Payment is prepaid in every case; cash on delivery is not available.