Zarmina - Lapis Lazuli Brass Necklace

From the Gulzar collection by Orah Jewels and Crafts, Zarmina is a Lapis Lazuli brass pendant paired with a delicate cloud charm. The name draws from Persian roots: "zar" for gold and "mina" for sky or enamel, and the piece holds both registers at once. The dense blue of the lapis sits against the warmth of aged brass, while the cloud form above it completes the image of sky meeting earth. The pendant hangs on a 9.3 inch brass chain.

Lapis Lazuli in this collection is sourced from Badakhshan, Afghanistan, the high altitude province that has supplied this stone to the world continuously for over seven thousand years. The color is produced by lazurite, a tectosilicate mineral in the sodalite group, whose ultramarine is one of the most chemically stable blues in nature. It does not bleach or fade with light exposure because it is fixed in the stone's crystalline structure. Ancient civilizations recognized this permanence: ground lapis became the ultramarine pigment that medieval painters paid more for than gold, and Badakhshan stone appears in Egyptian burial goods, Sumerian temple inlays, and across the Indus Valley Civilization's ornamental record. The gold toned flecks visible across the face of the stone are pyrite inclusions, iron sulfide crystals that grew simultaneously with the lazurite under high pressure in the calcium bearing metamorphic formations of Badakhshan's highlands. White streaking, where present, is calcite. Every piece of lapis carries a unique arrangement of these three minerals. The specific distribution in Zarmina's stone exists once.

The cloud charm positions above the lapis stone and extends the pendant's vertical presence while keeping the stone as the primary element. At 9.3 inches of chain length, this is a shorter collarbone piece that sits at or above the collarbone, close to the neck and present without falling into the chest. The aged brass chain, charm and setting read as a unified warm tone, with the lapis providing the chromatic point. This piece wears well alone or beneath other layers at a longer chain length.

Made at the Orah Jewels and Crafts facility in Lahore, Zarmina is assembled by hand by Orah's artisans. Lapis Lazuli used in this pendant is sourced directly from Badakhshan as part of a supply relationship built over more than twelve years of working in Pakistan's gemstone trade. One piece.

Stone: Natural Lapis Lazuli (Badakhshan, Afghanistan)
Metal: Brass
Size: Chain 9.3 Inches