Kemp Stones: The Red That Makes Temple Jewellery Look Right
There is one colour that makes a piece read as South Indian temple jewellery rather than generic gold-toned jewellery, and it is a particular deep red. That is kemp, and how it is used tells you more about a design than almost anything else.
What kemp is
Kemp is the traditional temple stone of South Indian jewellery: a deep, slightly opaque ruby red, cut flat or shallow-domed, and set into a raised gold-toned collet rather than prongs. It is traditionally paired with a green stone, and the red-against-green combination is the signature of the style.
On imitation jewellery, including everything here, kemp is a hand-set synthetic stone. What makes it read correctly is not what it is made of but how it is placed.
The placement rule
This is the thing worth learning.
On traditional work, kemp is punctuation. It marks the centre of a motif, the corners of a collar, the tip of a mango. The cast gold work is the subject, and the stones point at it.
On a piece following fashion rather than tradition, kemp is a field. Red stones cover the surface edge to edge, and the metalwork becomes a frame holding them.
Neither is wrong, but they are different things and they suit different outfits. The punctuated version reads as heritage and photographs as depth. The field version reads as sparkle and competes with a heavily worked outfit.
If you want a piece that looks like temple jewellery to someone from Tamil Nadu or Andhra, buy the punctuated one.
How much red is right
A rough test that holds up: on a traditional collar, kemp should be somewhere under a third of the visible surface. Past that, the eye starts reading the piece as a red necklace rather than a gold one with red detail.
The same applies to the green. Green is the counterweight, not an equal partner: on classical work it appears in perhaps one stone in four, breaking up the red so neither colour flattens into a single block.
What kemp does to your outfit choice
Kemp is a warm red, which means it sits well against some colours and fights others.
- Excellent with: maroon, deep red, mustard, cream, gold, bottle green, most temple-border silks.
- Difficult with: bright pink, coral, orange. These are close enough to kemp to clash without being close enough to match.
- Surprisingly good with: pastel and off-white, where the red becomes the single point of colour rather than one of several.
If your outfit is a lighter pink or a peach, a piece with pearl or gold bead drops will sit better than a kemp-heavy one.
What to look for in the setting
Because kemp is set into a collet rather than held by prongs, the failure point is the collet edge.
- The gold-toned rim should be even all the way round the stone. A collet that is thick on one side and thin on the other is a piece finished in a hurry.
- The stone should sit level, not tilted.
- Look at the stones nearest the clasp or the ends of a collar. Those are the ones set last and the first place quality drops.
The pieces here that use it properly
- Lakshmi Kemp Stone temple necklace set - kemp as punctuation, which is the whole point of this article.
- Lakshmi Floral Rosette temple necklace set - a single kemp stone at the centre of each rosette.
- Lakshmi Mango temple necklace set - kemp marking the mango tips.
More in the temple jewellery sets and South Indian wedding jewellery sets edits, and why Lakshmi sits at the centre explains what the stones are pointing at.
The honest part
Everything here is gold-plated Zamak with hand-set kemp and kundan stones, cast and finished in our workshop in Kandivali East, Mumbai. It is imitation jewellery, not solid gold, and we say so on every product page rather than leaving it to be found out. Free shipping across India, GST included in the price, and a manufacturing defect reported within 48 hours of delivery with a continuous unboxing video is repaired or replaced free.