Star Top Chandbali with Jhumka Drop

A pair of jhumkas in gold-tone brass, set with cubic zirconia and coloured stones. 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.

The earrings are chandbalis — crescent moons, named for the moon itself. A chandbali hangs flat against the jaw rather than swinging forward, which is why it sits well under a heavy necklace.

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.

Materials

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 Red — the shade the design was drawn for and the one in the photographs.

The base is brass under a premium gold polish. Brass is the right base for costume jewellery — heavy enough to feel like something, soft enough to be worked, and it does not go brittle with age.

How 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.

There is no sense in which this is an investment piece, and that is rather the point of it — you can buy a colour that suits one outfit, wear it to one wedding, and be satisfied.

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.

The finish is a gold polish rather than gold plating in the electroplated sense, which is the normal trade finish on Indian costume jewellery. It gives a warmer, slightly deeper colour than a thin electroplate and it sits better with coloured stones, but it is still a surface and it still needs the care below.

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