Each earring shows an oval stone of lab-grown zultanite, 10 x 8 mm, held in four prongs with rounded tips and framed by a halo of small colorless zircons set close together in pavé. In daylight the zultanite reads smoky brown with an olive cast. The halo does not touch the stone along its sides: a narrow gap runs between them, so the dark oval and the bright ring of zircons read as two separate lines of light.

Zultanite is a color-change gem, which means one and the same stone takes on a different tone under a window than under a warm bulb, and these earrings look a little different at a dinner table than they did in the afternoon. The zultanite here is lab-grown rather than mined, and it is stabilized. The stones of the halo are synthetic zircon, a material of its own and not cubic zirconia, and they are stabilized too.

We cast the earrings in 925 sterling silver and finish them by hand in our workshop in Türkiye. Rhodium plating gives the silver a cool white shine that sets off the brown center and keeps tarnish away longer, and the surface is polished. Seen from the side, a wide, smooth band of silver curves behind the ear. The closure is a latch back: a hinged wire goes through the piercing and clicks into that band. Each earring sits close to the lobe the way a stud does, yet there is no post and no butterfly back to drop and lose. An earring measures about 14 x 13 x 8 mm, and the pair weighs about 5.1 grams.

The oval halo is a classic shape, and as silver gemstone earrings with a brown center they suit a work day as well as an evening out. These earrings make a considered gift for a mother, for a wife, or as mother of the bride earrings for a woman who prefers warm color to plain white sparkle. Zircon is one of the December birthstones, so for someone born in December the halo carries her month’s stone.