Afreen - Lapis Lazuli Brass Necklace

From the Gulzar collection by Orah Jewels and Crafts, Afreen is a Lapis Lazuli brass pendant finished with a delicate floral charm. The name means "well done" in Urdu, a word of appreciation for something made right, and the piece earns it. The deep blue of the lapis and the flower detail above it work in the same register: richness and bloom, compressed into a pendant that hangs on a 9.5 inch brass chain.

Lapis Lazuli sourced by Orah comes from Badakhshan, Afghanistan, a province whose lapis mines have been active continuously for more than seven thousand years and supplied the ancient world's blue without pause. The mineral responsible for the color is lazurite, a member of the sodalite group of tectosilicates, whose ultramarine is among the most chemically stable blues in nature. It is fixed into the crystalline structure of the mineral and unaltered by light exposure over any timescale. The ancient world prized this permanence: lapis was the blue in Egyptian burial goods, in Sumerian temple inlay, and in the ultramarine pigment that European painters paid more for than gold for centuries. The gold colored flecks distributed across the face of the stone are pyrite inclusions, iron sulfide crystals that formed simultaneously with the lazurite under high pressure in the calcium bearing metamorphic rock of Badakhshan's highlands. White veining, where visible, is calcite. The specific arrangement of these three minerals in Afreen's stone does not repeat.

Afreen hangs on a 9.5 inch brass chain, the longest of the three pendant pieces in this group, positioning the stone at a collarbone to chest entry depth that works well with open necklines or worn over a light layer. The floral brass charm above the stone provides proportional framing and a botanical reference without competing for attention; the lapis remains the subject. This piece reads clearly in natural light, where the pyrite flecks become most visible against the blue.

Made at the Orah Jewels and Crafts facility in Lahore, Afreen is assembled by hand by Orah's artisans. Lapis Lazuli used in this piece is sourced directly from Badakhshan as part of a twelve-year supply relationship Orah has maintained with the region. One piece.

Stone: Natural Lapis Lazuli (Badakhshan, Afghanistan)
Metal: Brass
Size: Chain 9.5 Inches