Ruby Centre Necklace Set with Green Drops

A necklace set in gold-tone brass, set with cubic zirconia and coloured glass stones. It sits just below the collarbone, which is the easiest necklace length to wear. 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.

Shaped drops hang below the main body of the piece, lengthening the line and keeping the design from reading as a solid block.

What it is made of

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.

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.

Which colours are stocked

It is stocked in 2 shades: Red and Green. 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. All Keyura orders are prepaid. We do not offer cash on delivery.