Handcrafted Lakh Necklace
From Heritage Trading Company
A friend told us about wearing her lakh jewelry to a very chic Beverly Hills wedding. "People actually walked across the room to admire it," she said.
This lakh necklace and earrings set comes from the Rajasthan area of India. It's traditionally ornamented with rhinestones and faux pearls.
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See Creating Lakh Jewelry at the end of our listing to view photos of craftsmen at work and to learn more about this traditional art.
| Color: | Gold |
| Approximate Necklace Width: | 3/4 Inch, Plus Beads |
| Approximate Necklace Width: | 2 Centimeters, Plus Beads |
| Closer: | Adjustable Drawstring |
| Drawstring Max & Min Length: | 27 Inches & 11 Inches |
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This jewelry is brand new, not used or "vintage." |
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Remarkably versatile, ethnic, lakh jewelry looks great with everything from a casual blouse to evening attire. Wear it with a solid color blouse or dress. Keep the rest of the outfit simple, and this dazzling piece will be the dramatic touch that starts countless conversations.
This item is shipped from India. Please allow 2 weeks for delivery.
L11-4001 or L10-1406
Outstanding Quality. Please See Our Feedback.
View all of our listings for more affordable luxuries from Jodhpur, Jaipur, and other parts of Rajasthan and India.
| International Buyers - Please Note |
| Import duties, taxes, and charges are not included in the item price or shipping cost. These charges are the buyer's responsibility. |
| Please check with your country's customs office to determine what these additional costs will be prior to bidding or buying. |
| Customs activity may delay the arrival of your package. In our experience, this is infrequent, but it does sometimes happen. Thanks for your patience. |
Creating Lakh Jewelry
Bikaner
Lakh jewelry comes from the Indian state of Rajasthan. There are several manufacturing centers, but this craft is really the specialty of Bikaner, a medieval, walled city in the heart of the Thar Desert. Even though it takes the work of many specialists to produce a single piece, the manufacture of lakh jewelry is a true cottage industry in Bikaner. As it goes through the various stages of production, a piece will move from house to house along the ancient, narrow streets of the old town.
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Inside the old, walled city of Bikaner. View from the terrace of the Jain Temple. |
Streetscapes in Bikaner. Facades on the historic townhouses (called havelis) are often made of carved red sandstone. |
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Lakh-Filled Jewelry
These pieces are typically referred to as lakh jewelry, but they might more correctly be called lakh-filled jewelry. You don’t actually see any of the lakh on a finished piece. The exterior surfaces are enameled silver with a gold polish.
Design & Dies
The manufacturing process starts with a design, which is then turned into a metal die. Even new designs almost always have a traditional look, and dies can be used for many years. Each bead or medallion requires two dies: one for the front surface and one for the back.
Stamping The Silver
A thin piece of silver foil is stamped against a die to transfer the design image, creating one side of the medallion or bead. The same is done for the reverse side. The two pieces are fitted together to form a delicate, hollow, silver shell.
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A jeweler uses a small mallet to strike silver foil against a metal die. The open box in front of him contains pieces of silver foil; pictures of Hindu gods are taped to the inside of the lid. |
Two pieces of stamped silver are fitted together to produce a hollow, silver shell. |
Enameling
Enamels come to the jewelers in solid blocks, which look like colorful glass rocks. Pieces are chipped off, finely ground, and mixed with water. The enamel colors are then painted onto the silver shells, and they are fired in tiny, cylindrical kilns. The pieces are still very delicate at this stage and easily damaged, so a protective white coating is painted onto each one before it’s passed along to the next craftsman.
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Hollow, silver beads are being painted with green enamel and set on small, wire racks. |
Wire racks holding the silver beads are placed into a tiny kiln to fire the enamel. |
Lakh
Lakh (lac) has been used for centuries in India to fill the hollow spaces in jewelry. A natural resin, lakh is secreted by an insect as a kind of cocoon and deposited onto tree branches. The branches are harvested, and the lakh is processed to remove impurities. The lakh used by the Bikaner jewelers has already been refined by the time it reaches them. The craftsmen purchase it by the kilo and melt it in small cauldrons. As the lakh cools, the jeweler stretches it to produce thin strands. These strands harden into needle-thin straws. To fill one of the hollow silver pieces, a craftsman heats the silver slightly, than pushes a lakh straw through one of the tiny holes on the piece’s edge. Once filled with lakh, the silver shell still looks delicate but is now strong enough to be used as jewelry.
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A craftsman melts lakh over a small fire on his
patio.
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Softened lakh is stretched between two bricks to produce fine strands.
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A silver bead, with a white protective coating, is filled with lakh. The gray piece of charcoal on the craftsman’s work surface is used to warm the silver bead, to that it can, in turn, soften the lakh. Lakh straws lie on the floor in the foreground.
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Rhinestones & Gold
After the protective coating has been removed, the work shifts to the surface of the medallion. The silver areas are covered with a wash of real gold. The piece is again heated slightly to soften the lakh, and rhinestones are pressed through the silver foil and embedded in the lakh. Loops that will be used to hold tiny beads are also introduced.
Beads & Cords
The final step is to attach the dangling beads, string the silver pieces, and add the jewelry findings.
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In the final
step, the lakh-filled, silver pieces are strung on necklaces, beads and
cords are attached, and jewelry findings are added.
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Time & Craftsmanship
It takes at least nine different Bikaner craftsmen to produce each piece of lakh jewelry. From the initial silver stamping to its final packaging for shipment, a typical lakh necklace and earrings set requires 16 craftsman-hours of work. And that doesn’t even take into consideration the time and skill needed to harvest and refine the lakh and to produce the enamels that are used in the production of this jewelry.
From Heritage Trading
We hope that knowing something about the people and craftsmanship behind your lakh jewelry will make wearing it even more of a pleasure.