They are white, the description of "iron" and the picture seem to indicate that they might be silver or at least metal colored, but they are white. I spray painted mine to match my decor, so it didn't really matter to me. 

My main issue however is that I only received 4 hanging 'gems' per sconce (8 total). The picture clearly has one hanging from the bottom and one hanging off of each of the 6 'arms' - 7 gems per sconce, 14 gems in total. In my case it is obvious it was not a packaging error, since three of the 'arms' are fully closed and would not allow for a gem to be hung off of them as is shown in the picture. Honestly the sparkly detail is what drove me to purchase this item over others in the same price point. A pretty clear cut "bate and switch."