Awwal - Lapis Lazuli and White Topaz Silver Earrings

From the Mehr collection by Orah Jewels and Crafts, Awwal is built around a structural contrast: a rectangular silver element at the top of the earring, precise and angular, with lapis lazuli from Afghanistan suspended below it. The two parts of the design are intentionally different in character, the silver carries geometry, the lapis carries depth, and the relationship between them is what makes the piece work.

Lapis lazuli from Badakhshan, Afghanistan is one of the oldest continuously traded gemstone materials in the world. The same mines that supply Orah Jewels today have been worked for over six thousand years, their output traveling ancient trade routes to Egypt, Persia, and the Indus Valley. The blue is produced by lazurite, a mineral that forms under metamorphic conditions deep in the earth and generates a color of extraordinary saturation and consistency — not a surface treatment, not a dye, but the color of the mineral itself, reading from within the stone. The white topaz set into the rectangular silver element above returns light with the high precision characteristic of the material, its transparency a deliberate counterpoint to the opaque density of the lapis below.

The rectangular form of the upper element was chosen for its structural clarity. It establishes a clean horizontal line from which the lapis drop reads freely, the stone's natural color and the slight variation in its inclusions visible without any competing detail around it. At 1.6 inches total drop, Awwal is a considered length — present without being heavy. 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: 1.6"