Qadeem - Lapis Lazuli Silver Earrings

From the Mehr collection by Orah Jewels and Crafts, Qadeem is a pair of lapis lazuli earrings with a hammered silver texture that adds depth and movement to the surface of the metal. The stone sits against worked silver that catches light unevenly, creating a tactile quality that feels closer to early metalwork than to polished contemporary jewelry. The interplay between the smooth deep blue of the lapis lazuli from Afghanistan and the textured silver gives the earrings a visual weight that balances refinement with an almost archaic presence.

Lapis lazuli from Badakhshan, Afghanistan has been worked continuously for over six thousand years from the same mountain deposits in the Hindu Kush. The ancient world moved this stone across trade routes that connected Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, and Rome — civilizations separated by thousands of miles but unified by their use of this material. The deep blue is produced by lazurite, a sulfur bearing silicate mineral that forms under metamorphic conditions and generates a color so specific and so interior that no synthetic substitute has matched it. The pyrite inclusions in Qadeem appear as fine gold threading across the blue, the geological record of iron sulfide crystallizing alongside the lazurite under heat and pressure, and they remain intact as part of the stone's identity.

The hammered texture on the silver is done by hand at the Orah Jewels facility in Lahore. Each strike of the hammer creates a facet that reflects light differently from its neighbor, so the surface reads as active rather than flat. The texture also creates a deliberate contrast with the lapis — the stone is smooth and dense, the silver is worked and responsive to light. At 2.6 inches, these are earrings that make their presence felt without relying on size alone. The length positions the lapis at a point where it moves with the head rather than hanging statically. One pair.

Stone: Natural Lapis Lazuli (Badakhshan, Afghanistan)
Metal: Sterling Silver with hammered texture
Length: 2.6"