BLADE link in Arctic Graphite carbon fiber, worn on the edge of the ear. $95 (Rp 1,690,000), 0.3 grams, no piercing, made to order in about two weeks.
Cut on a CNC machine from sheet carbon in the Arctic Graphite palette: a black weave with blue veining running through it, and the milled edge showing the layers as fine stripes. The BLADE link form, carried into the lightest material in the range.
BLADE is the second form of the brand — flat, even planes, as if cut from sheet. In silver that link runs through bracelets, chains, chokers and earrings. Here it is left open, so the cuff sits on the edge of the ear and holds by its own shape; either ear, no piercing, no gender.
Carbon is the counterweight to living silver. Silver darkens and takes on a patina; carbon stays as it came off the machine — no shift in colour, no polishing, no trouble with water. At 0.3 grams it is the lightest object STRUGA makes.
Material: in-house multi-layer carbon fiber — not silver — in the Arctic Graphite palette, one of STRUGA's 6 carbon palettes.
Families / world: BLADE gives the form, CARBON the material; the object belongs to RITUAL, the world that holds STRUGA's carbon.
Surface: matte black carbon with blue veining; colourfast and unchanging — it takes no patina.
Form: an ear cuff — sits on the edge of the ear and holds by its own shape, no piercing, not tied to gender.
Price and term: $95 (Rp 1,690,000); made to order, about two weeks.
Care: water-resistant and stable; needs none of the care silver does.
How it differs from the other STRUGA ear cuffs
The two carbon palettes differ in colour only: Arctic Graphite carries the blue veining, Graphite stays black. Between the two forms the difference is the silhouette — the BLADE link is stepped at the shoulders, the SIGNATURE ASYMMETRIC band is plain. Carbon against silver is a difference of weight and behaviour: 0.3 grams that stay as they are, or 3.8 grams that darken with wear.
Who it is for, and when
For an ear without a piercing, and for a pierced ear that has run out of room — the cuff sits on the rim and needs no hole. It is also the shortest way into STRUGA: the second form of the brand at the price of a small object, in the material the brand started with.
It goes where silver is usually taken off — water, the sea, the gym, a long flight, a working day under headphones. Carbon takes water without a mark, and 0.3 grams do not pull on the ear. Worn alone it reads as one dark line; worn with a silver cuff or a stud it sets cold, unchanging carbon against warm, darkening silver.
The limit is worth naming: this is a rigid object, not an elastic one. It holds by its own shape, it is put on and taken off deliberately, and it is not made to be slept in.
About STRUGA. STRUGA is a brand of experimental minimalism in Dark Fashion, founded in Bali. Founders and designers — Dmitry Strugovshchikov and Ekaterina Strugovshchikova. Production: Bali. Most pieces are 925 sterling silver with natural patina or hand-patination; this object is in-house carbon fiber — stable and colorfast. A brutalist object.