One of the best things that happens on Instagram is when an image stops you completely in your tracks. There’s so much to see in the platform, and, depending on the accounts you follow, there can be such a wide range of images—food, fashion, memes, celebrities, jewelry, animals, kids’ stuff—in photos or video form.
My point being, when something catches your eye long enough to make you linger, it’s got to be good.
And these earrings from Cicada Jewelry, which did just that for me recently, are indeed good.
Cicada is known for incredible one-off pieces that can simply be described as “major”—and these are certainly no exception.
Though not all-out Very Peri, Pantone’s periwinkle-esque Color of the Year that feels especially gemstone-friendly, the earrings play with the same family of colors, comprising an ombré arrangement of fancy color sapphires in three vertical rows per ear. Whether the fault of Pantone or not, we do collectively seem especially interested in blues and purples this year, so these are in the right place at the right time (though, the color of the year could be orange and these would still be undeniably hot).
I’ve seen excellent ombré sapphire earrings in this range of colors—I’m certain we all have. It’s a popular, eye-pleasing palette that ensures a lot of likes and interested buyers. But what Cicada has done here goes so far beyond simply selecting pretty colors.
The arrangement is grand, a silhouette both bold and elegant. But my favorite part really puts them over the top, that extra mile that makes such a massive difference in the overall look.
The earrings are made in platinum, a delicious metal that would have suited those vertical lines just fine. Instead, the oval-shape sapphires are set along routes of black jade, a contrasting, unexpected element that’s absolutely divine.
“The multicolor sapphires needed a dark material as contrast to showcase their beauty. While considering different metals, our stone carver suggested that he could fashion them out of black jade, which would provide a deeper black than black rhodium–plated metal would,” says Cicada’s Burak Tirtirian. “We wanted to create that exceptional edge and unique style.”
I’d say mission accomplished, wouldn’t you?
Top: Earrings in platinum with 38.26 cts. t.w. sapphires and black jade, $55,800; Cicada Jewelry
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