Polki-style: how the uncut-look is engineered.

Polki is one of the most-asked-about Indian jewellery techniques and one of the most-misrepresented. The honest definition: traditional polki is a setting of uncut natural diamonds in 22-karat gold, with no foil behind the stone, allowing light to scatter through the diamond's natural geology. Polki-style — the term we use, and the only term we use — is a fashion-jewellery reinterpretation that achieves a similar visual effect with engineered materials. The two are not the same product and we never claim they are. Here is what changes underneath.

In traditional polki, the stone is a flat slice of uncut natural diamond, cleaned but not faceted. The stone arrives at the workshop from a Surat dealer with provenance documentation per stone over half a carat. The setter shapes the gold base to the stone (not the other way around — each stone is one-of-one), and seats the diamond with a thin gold lip rolled over the natural girdle. The visual effect is a soft, milky luminescence as light scatters across the natural surface. A trained eye reads it as polki within three seconds of looking.

In polki-style fashion jewellery, the stone is an engineered flat-cut glass or quartz piece designed to approximate the silhouette and surface texture of an uncut diamond. The stones are cut in bulk to standard sizes, which speeds the setting process — the gold-plated brass base can be pre-templated, the bezels machine-cut. The optical effect is similar from arm's length: a soft, light-scattering surface that reads as polki across the room. Up close, a jeweller's loupe distinguishes them immediately. We do not pretend otherwise.

What we do reproduce faithfully: the layout vocabulary. Polki necklaces have a distinctive geometry — stones are arranged in clusters that follow the lehenga embroidery, not in symmetric rows. The maang tikka in polki-style is typically smaller than the kundan equivalent and reads as a single statement stone rather than a stone-cluster. The earrings are usually chandbalis (crescent-shape) with a single dominant stone framed by smaller accents. This layout vocabulary is the part the heritage technique gives us, and the part our Jaipur ateliers execute identically whether the stone is a natural diamond or an engineered substitute.

The lighting test: polki-style pieces flatter warm, indirect light. Photograph a polki-inspired choker in late-afternoon sun through a window and the milky-luminous effect is exactly what tradition promises. Photograph the same piece under a flash or a cool LED ceiling fixture and the engineered stones reveal themselves — the highlights become harsher, more uniform than natural diamond would produce. Brides who plan polki-style for outdoor or candlelit functions get the full optical effect; brides who plan it for banquet-hall lighting often regret the choice.

A note on American-diamond accents. The smaller stones around the central polki-style pieces in our line are American diamonds — cubic zirconia, the most common engineered diamond substitute. American diamond does sparkle, often more brightly than natural diamond, which is why traditional polki avoids it. In our line we use American-diamond accents sparingly, at the edges of the design where a small bright highlight contrasts the larger milky stones. This is a deliberate aesthetic choice, not a substitution dressed up as the real thing.

Pricing reflects the materials honestly. A traditional polki bridal necklace from a Johari Bazaar atelier runs ₹2,00,000 to ₹15,00,000 depending on stone weight. Our polki-inspired pieces sit between ₹2,500 and ₹4,500. The labour cost — Jaipur bench time, layout design, hand-setting — is similar. The materials cost is where the four orders of magnitude differ. Both lines have their customer. Both lines exist on the same street in Jaipur. Conflating them is the misrepresentation we built this brand to avoid.