Triple Strand Pearl Jhumka Earrings

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

Design and detail

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.

Small pearls finish the lower edge. Pearls do something no faceted stone can — they give back a soft, diffused light, which calms a design that would otherwise be all sparkle.

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

Materials used

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.

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 Red — 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.

Wear them with the hair back or up. An earring of this kind disappears against loose hair, and the design is worth seeing.

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

Treat the plating as the wearing part. Keep it away from water, perfume and hair spray, put it on after you have finished dressing, and wipe it with a dry cotton cloth before it goes away. Stored dry in a zip pouch with the air pressed out, the finish lasts for years; left in a humid bathroom it will not last a season.

The photographs on this page are of the piece itself, shot under ordinary light rather than in a studio, so what you see is close to what arrives. Screens do shift colour, though, and a deep red can read as maroon on one phone and as crimson on another — if the exact shade matters to you, ask on the enquiry and we will describe it against something familiar.

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. Keyura is prepaid only EM there is no cash on delivery on any order.