Nishapur Beaded Earrings

$75.00 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Unique gifts for her. These artful earrings pay homage to a group of 9th–12th-century carnelian prayer beads found in the Iranian city of Nishapur, and restrung for exhibition in one of The Met's Islamic Art galleries. The Muslim subha (strand of prayer beads) typically includes 33 or 99 beads for the recitation of the 99 "beautiful names" of God. The pendant bead on the original, reenvisioned here as a decorative element, would alert the user (who was most likely a man) by touch that his prayer circuit is…