Emerald Green Glass Bangle Set

Green bangles carry more meaning in India than most jewellery does. They come out for Teej, and in several communities they are what a newly married woman wears by default. Sixteen of them in deep lacquered green is not a small decision.

The set is glass rather than metal, lacquered to hold the colour, with gold and bronze beadwork dusted across the surface and clusters of ghungroo bells hung from some of the bangles. Glass gives a depth of colour that plated metal cannot. Light passes into it rather than bouncing off.

Glass also breaks. That is the honest trade and there is no way around it. A set of sixteen assumes some attrition over the years, which is part of why they are sold in sixteens and priced the way they are.

They sound different from metal bangles too. Glass on glass is a higher, drier clink, and sixteen of them make a lot of it.

Store them in a soft cloth rather than loose in a box, and keep them out of a hot car, since lacquer and heat do not get along.