Tasavvur - Lapis Lazuli Brass Earrings

From the Ankahee collection by Orah Jewels and Crafts, Tasavvur takes its name from the Urdu word for imagination and gives shape to the thoughts and emotions that exist before they are spoken. Each earring is a brass hoop shaped as a broad crescent, its band pierced with circles and crossed lines in a geometric lattice, with one round lapis lazuli cabochon set at the base where the two ends of the band meet. The stone is the only blue in the design, held against the warm gold tone of the brass.

The stone is natural lapis lazuli from Badakhshan, Afghanistan, where the mines of the Kokcha Valley have supplied the world for over six thousand years. Lapis is a metamorphic rock, not a single mineral, built mainly from lazurite, which produces the deep blue, with white veins of calcite and scattered flecks of pyrite that read as gold. The finest stone combines high lazurite with little calcite and evenly spread pyrite, and those natural variations are part of what marks lapis as genuine, since dyed imitations tend to look flat and even. Badakhshan lapis was traded west to Egypt and Mesopotamia and east to the Indus Valley, and ground into ultramarine pigment for centuries. In Tasavvur the stone is a small round cabochon, cut and polished in Lahore, so the blue reads as one clean field of color against the pierced brass.

The pierced pattern recalls the jali screens of Mughal architecture, with circles and crossed lines repeating along the full length of the band. The band is widest at the base, where the stone sits, and narrows toward the hinge, and the openwork keeps the pair light on the ear despite its size. A hinged wire closes into the opposite end of the hoop and holds it secure. At 2 Inches, the hoops are large enough to show the pattern clearly, and the single blue stone keeps them easy to wear with both plain and printed clothing.

Made at Orah Jewels and Crafts in Lahore, where twelve years of direct gemstone sourcing and our own lapidary facility shape every piece. The lapis lazuli reaches us from Badakhshan through that same network, and our artisans finish the brasswork by hand. One pair.

Size: 2 Inches
Metal: Brass
Stone: Natural Lapis Lazuli (Badakhshan)