J Is for Jade
Jade – A precious stone of great beauty – An ancient Chinese saying – we’ll pledge!
We love jade, both stones, Jadeite and Nephrite. Our collection of carving and jewelry of nephrite jade mainly comes from British Colombia. The Jade company we work with, just like us, a family-owned, multi generational company. They find, mine, and create with their nephrite jade amazing pieces of jewelry and carved figurines.
While Nixon was in office, the doors to china opened up and many ancient Chinese treasures made their way to the Western World. Memorized the exotic mystery of orient, our buyer at the time didn’t skip many buying opportunities. Our collection of carved jade is all antique Jadeite & recent carving of Nephrite.
Through our collection, you’ll notice we specify the Type of Jade. Due to its desirability, Jadeite is often being sent to the ‘beauty parlor’ for some enhancements. We clarify on each piece the grading and if we know the origin of the stone.
So, here we go;
Type A: Natural, untreated jade, might have a beeswax coating for shine.
Type B: Bleached and polymer impregnate jade. Jade will get a lighter more transparent look with no visible inclusions.
Type C: Bleached, polymer impregnate, and dyed. Gorgeous colors at the fraction of the price. Many time we see a highly desirable apple or imperial green colors that are highly transparent or nice uniformed purple colors.
Most of the nephrite jade is type A.
Because Jade is super strong stone, caring for it is quite easy, and it is ultimate everyday piece.
Type A jade can go into the ultrasonic cleaner, being steamed, or just rinsed with soap and water. However, Type B & C are less durable and should be cleaned with soap and water only. If the piece has many small carving, indentations, and donuts, we recommend using a tooth brush to get in the small cavities. Remember, jade is stronger than gold and silver, make sure to bring your loved pieces to our jewelers for check up on prongs, bezel, wrapping, and knotting.
Jade comes in many different colors, shades, and grades, it’s fun to diversify your collection with different colors & origins, like forest green from Canada, light purple from Guatemala, Maori black Jade, ultimate Hetian white jade, mid green Siberian Jade and much more.
If you are intrigued by jade like we are, check out this awesome mini series “China’s Ancient Jade Culture” by CCTV.
http://english.cntv.cn/program/newfrontiers/series/jade/
