Aafaq - Lapis Lazuli and White Topaz Silver Earrings

From the Mehr collection by Orah Jewels and Crafts, Aafaq is a statement earring built for presence. Lapis lazuli from Afghanistan and white topaz are set together in a bold silver silhouette from the Mehr collection, a piece where the design is large enough to carry cultural weight and specific enough in its material choices to reward close attention.

Lapis lazuli from Badakhshan, Afghanistan is extracted from mountain deposits that have been worked continuously for over six thousand years, making it one of the most historically charged gemstone materials that exists. It supplied the ancient world with its deepest blue, ground into ultramarine pigment for Byzantine icons and Renaissance paintings, shaped into seals and amulets across Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley, traded as currency along the Silk Road. The color is produced by lazurite, a sulfur-bearing silicate mineral that forms under specific metamorphic conditions and generates a blue of extraordinary interior density. It does not sit on the surface of the stone. It comes from within it. The pyrite inclusions threading through the lapis in Aafaq read as fine gold across the deep blue, the geological record of the stone preserved intact and presented as part of the design.

White topaz is set alongside the lapis to introduce a material that behaves in the opposite way: transparent where the lapis is opaque, light-returning where the lapis absorbs. The contrast between the two is the central logic of the piece. At 1.1 inches, Aafaq is a compact earring by the standards of the Mehr collection, but the weight of the silver and the density of the stones give it a presence that reads clearly. This is an earring made for someone who chooses what they wear with intention. Made in Lahore at the Orah Jewels and Crafts facility. One pair.

Stones: Natural Lapis Lazuli (Badakhshan, Afghanistan) and White Topaz
Metal: Sterling Silver
Drop Length: 1.1"