Two Layer Emerald and Ruby Necklace Set

A necklace set in gold-tone brass, set with cubic zirconia and coloured glass stones. It is built in more than one tier, so the design fills the whole neckline. The design is built around a geometric panel. Photographed in Red.

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.

Several stones are set polki-style, flat-topped and bedded in a rim of metal rather than gripped in claws. That is the older Indian way of setting a stone, and it gives a broad calm flash instead of a point of sparkle.

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.

Where the coloured stones sit in flat rims of metal rather than claws, the piece is borrowing from kundan work. In true kundan, pure gold foil is burnished cold around a stone until friction alone grips it; it is one of the few setting methods that needs neither heat nor solder. Costume jewellery copies the look in plated brass, and the broad flat rim is the tell.

Colours and availability

There are 4 colourways: Red, Multi Color, Green and White. 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.

What it is made of

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.

The design

It wants an open neckline. Against a high-necked kurta the design has nowhere to sit, so keep it for a saree blouse or a boat neck, and pin your dupatta behind the shoulder.

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

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.

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.