Sahiba - Natural Lapis Lazuli Silver Ring

From the Rani collection by Orah Jewels and Crafts, a ring where the stone does all the work. Sahiba holds a raw piece of Lapis Lazuli from Badakhshan, Afghanistan in a plain silver wire setting, the stone uncut and unpolished so its natural surface and the depth of its blue are presented without any lapidary intervention between the stone as it came from the earth and the stone as it sits on the finger.

Lapis Lazuli from Badakhshan is among the oldest gemstone material in continuous human use. The Sar-e-Sang mines in Afghanistan's Badakhshan Province have supplied stone to every major ancient civilization within trade reach, from Egypt to Rome to the Indus Valley, for more than 6,000 years. The blue is produced by lazurite, a complex sulfur-bearing mineral within the sodalite group, which forms in marble-like calcium carbonate rock at high altitude. The best Badakhshan material has a deep, even blue with pyrite inclusions that read as fine gold flecks, and minimal white calcite veining. A raw stone preserves all the surface character of how the mineral actually formed: the slight irregularity of its outline, the variation in blue intensity across the surface, and the natural granular texture of the stone rather than the glassy smoothness of a polished piece. This is lapis as geologists and traders have known it for millennia, before the lapidary's wheel changes it.

The wire setting is minimal and adjustable around the stone, the ring designed to accommodate size variation around US 7.5 with some flex. The stone sits low, the silver presents only enough frame to hold the piece securely, and the overall profile is close to the finger.

Made at the Orah Jewels facility in Lahore. Lapis sourced directly from Badakhshan, Afghanistan. One piece.

Stone: Natural Lapis Lazuli (Badakhshan, Afghanistan)
Metal: Sterling Silver
Size: US 7.5 (adjustable)
Collection: Rani