This pair of padparadscha sapphire earrings centres two unheated stones, 1.05ct and 1.12ct, GRS certified, set beneath a diamond lotus in champagne and white gold.
| Specification Details | |
|---|---|
| Gemstones | Pair of Unheated Padparadscha Sapphires |
| Colour | Sunset Pink-Orange |
| Weights | 1.05ct and 1.12ct |
| Shape | Oval |
| Treatment | Unheated |
| Certificate | GRS |
| Diamonds | Round Brilliant 20 pieces 0.23ct, Pear 2 pieces 0.12ct |
| Design | Lotus Flower Motif, Dangle Drop |
| Metal | 18K Champagne Gold and White Gold |
Custom Design
Each earring falls in two parts. At the top, pavé diamonds are worked into the shape of lotus petals opening upward, set in white gold with fine champagne gold at the tips. Below hangs a single oval padparadscha sapphire, a soft salmon stone in which pink and orange sit together rather than one giving way to the other. A pear diamond and a round brilliant bridge the two, carrying the eye down the line from open flower to falling petal to the coloured stone at its end.
The two sapphires are matched as a pair, 1.05 and 1.12 carats, close enough in colour and cut that they read as one across both ears. That matching is harder than it sounds with padparadscha. The colour is so specific, and stones of it so few, that assembling a pair of even size and even tone can take longer than finding a single stone. The oval cut suits the colour, opening the stone out so the pink-orange glow fills the whole face rather than banking in the centre.
Set in two tones of gold, white above and warm champagne through the petalwork, the metal frames the sapphire without cooling it. White gold on its own can leave a warm stone looking stranded. The champagne gold answers the orange in the padparadscha and holds the earring in one warm key from top to drop.
The Lotus and the Padparadscha
There is a reason a lotus setting suits this stone above any other. The name padparadscha comes from the Sinhalese word for the lotus blossom, and the stone was named centuries ago in Sri Lanka for the colour of that flower, the soft pink-orange of a lotus at the water’s edge. To build the setting as a lotus is to return the stone to the flower it was named for, so that form and colour arrive at the same idea.
Padparadscha is among the rarest of all sapphires. It is defined not by a single colour but by a delicate meeting of pink and orange, and a stone that leans too far either way loses the name entirely. The laboratories hold it to a narrow standard, and this pair carries GRS certification confirming the padparadscha colour in the sunset range, with no evidence of heat. Unheated is the distinction collectors look for, since it means the colour formed in the ground and was never coaxed by treatment. A matched, unheated, GRS-certified padparadscha pair is a genuinely uncommon thing to hold, let alone to wear.
Commission Showcase
This pair of customised jewellery was created exclusively for a GIOIA client and is not available for purchase. If it speaks to you, we can compose a padparadscha piece of your own, with a padparadscha sapphire sourced and assessed by Clarence Yee, co-founder and gemstone specialist at GIOIA.
Let’s Create Yours
Drawn to padparadscha, or another rare coloured stone? Every GIOIA commission begins with the stones in your hand, under natural light, at our private boutique at International Plaza. Tell us what you have in mind.