The JADE thread!

TPF may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, and others

#2,761
Hi Jadies I'm back from our family vacation and trying to catch up on all the posts. So many pics of gorgeous pieces 😍
I ended up wearing my everyday bangle in my left - can't seem to part with it and I wore my new lavender bangle on my right hand during the day. Here is a picture I took. It is by the ice rink.

View attachment 3108659
 
#2,762
2boys_jademommy said:
Hi Jadies I'm back from our family vacation and trying to catch up on all the posts. So many pics of gorgeous pieces 😍
I ended up wearing my everyday bangle in my left - can't seem to part with it and I wore my new lavender bangle on my right hand during the day. Here is a picture I took. It is by the ice rink.

View attachment 3108659
Click to expand...

GORGEOUS!!!! Hope you enjoyed your holiday!
 
#2,763
I should add that the lighting made the bangle a more intense lavender. I love how jade changes colours. Also as you can see the small patches of pale green disappeared entirely.
Too many beautiful pictures for me to comment on but what a treat to see everyone's jewellery ��
Okay gotta catch up on loads and loads of post vacation laundry ugh!
 
#2,766
crosso said:
Thank you, Annetok. I have two fur babies, here they are together in their "catio" enclosure on the deck (can't help sharing, I adore both of them - they are such lovebugs!) Perhaps I should look for a creamy Hetian nephrite bangle to represent the second one!
Click to expand...

OH MY GOSH!! I sooo love cats. We have cat cafes in my country and the fur babies are so so sweet. Look, a carved Hetian Bangle: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hetian-Jade-Bangle-/271963038838?hash=item3f5242a476 ;) actually I've been wanting that for myself but bought a diamond ring. No-more-jewelry diet for me!
 
#2,767
Crosso, you Must get a white nephrite! Would look wonderful with your collection. I think it would be gorgeous on you! Adorable cats too! Sigh...

Just be wary if you do start looking. There is a lot of other stuff that looks like white nephrite and is not. If it has a low-ish price, it's likely too good to be true.( sometimes people do get lucky deals though). For example, Kawa jade (a strong type of serpentine) and Bowenite are popular on the market. A pure white, very translucent, even bangle for a few hundred is suspect. Often sellers of older things are not aware of what they truly have. I made that mistake and bought a 300 " nephrite" bangle, did a specific gravity test, turned out to be serpentine, or something else, and back it went. The sellers were shocked and had no idea, but they were profesh about it. I know you will find something totally gorgeous which is just right, as you always do with your eye for great jades:)

Oh, btw, I found a jadeite version of our 'winter' bangles! Not as dramatic, but I'll post it soon!
 
Last edited:
#2,770
Some thoughts about nephrite, and what I've been trying to learn about......please skip if not interested lol!


3jade does sell nephrite bangles in a very reasonable price range, ( love them!) some with lovely carvings, and there you get nephrites that are not of the most mainstream, and therefore price driving colors. Of course, this is a matter of taste, beauty is subjective, and I must stress that lovely jade can be had in ALL price ranges !! However , for the purpose of learning about it and buying what you hope to buy online, it's a good 'eye training' to look at the textures and colors of the nephrites and see the differences between those and some of the 100k ones on the jadefinejewelry site. Even there, some nephrite bangles that are a few thousand look astonishingly similar to the ones on the tens of thousands, so there are fine differences to learn to distinguish. Jack told me that they have offered few nephrite bangles compared with their jadeite selection on their foreign site because most Westerners don't have the chance to learn about it, and therefore don't appreciate the differences. It's a truly different world then that of jadeite, though there are some overlaps.

On the 3jade site, I think that those are Korean nephrite, which has a different texture then other types, and is quite a bit less expensive. (It's not offered on the jadedibejewelry site according to jack.) Again, very white hetian, ( the most expensive color), from china or nephrite from Siberia is going to cost considerably more.

One way of identifying serpentine, is that it can be too translucent for nephrite. I bought a few Chinese books with pictures of nephrite treasures, and I've never seen one that is glassy and milky translucence in which you can see into the stone. The nephrite which I have seen has an even creaminess which reflects light in a glowy way, but isn't translucent the way that serpentine relatives are. Some serpentine a can be cloudy too, so there is a big range in it. There are some gorgeous types, like Kawa jade, which is also of a similar MOH'S measure in hardness. I'm all for it, but only if that's what you were planning on buying, and not thinking you are getting nephrite.

Nephrite is a very subtle thing to understand. I just read an article about why certain types are much more expensive then others, and it comes down to differences of oily luster, moisture in the stone, grain, and other qualities. At first, compared with jadeite, it may look all similar, especially because it's hard to see subtle differences in pictures. One needs GOOD pictures to see.

This has been a totally different education for me, and am trying to learn. I probably will still be years from now. I am not an expert, but wish to share some thoughts and inspiration for the purpose of getting informed about both the material and the market together.
 
Last edited:
#2,772
annetok said:
OH MY GOSH!! I sooo love cats. We have cat cafes in my country and the fur babies are so so sweet. Look, a carved Hetian Bangle: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hetian-Jade-Bangle-/271963038838?hash=item3f5242a476 ;) actually I've been wanting that for myself but bought a diamond ring. No-more-jewelry diet for me!
Click to expand...
Cat cafes!?! Do you eat there or is it a place to just go and hang out with cats and maybe drink some coffee? Sounds wonderful (except for possibly getting cat fur in your food, lol!)
 
#2,773
clairejune said:
Crosso, you Must get a white nephrite! Would look wonderful with your collection. I think it would be gorgeous on you! Adorable cats too! Sigh...

Just be wary if you do start looking. There is a lot of other stuff that looks like white nephrite and is not. If it has a low-ish price, it's likely too good to be true.( sometimes people do get lucky deals though). For example, Kawa jade (a strong type of serpentine) and Bowenite are popular on the market. A pure white, very translucent, even bangle for a few hundred is suspect. Often sellers of older things are not aware of what they truly have. I made that mistake and bought a 300 " nephrite" bangle, did a specific gravity test, turned out to be serpentine, or something else, and back it went. The sellers were shocked and had no idea, but they were profesh about it. I know you will find something totally gorgeous which is just right, as you always do with your eye for great jades:)

Oh, btw, I found a jadeite version of our 'winter' bangles! Not as dramatic, but I'll post it soon!
Click to expand...
Can't wait to see your new winter jadeite bangle!
If I do get a white nephrite, I will be very careful. Back when I first joined the thread, I bought what I thought was one, certified, so was confident. Once I learned about SG and tested all my bangles, found that it is probably bowenite, agate or chalcedony (hard to tell as all their SGs are very close.) It's a lovely bangle, but as you describe in your other post, it does not really have that waxy, glowy look to it, it is more glassy looking and very even. Live and learn.
Thanks for your post re nephrite! There is so much to learn and I think probably even less easily found information about nephrite than jadeite and how to identify good material. I do like 3jade's nephrites, even though they are not the milky white - I like the hollow carved ones, I find them so intriguing! I bought my chunky BC nephrite from them and love it. Good quality for the price.
If I were to get a non-carved one, I would want a creamy white with deeper cream/beige areas (just like my cat :catlick:), but I suspect one like that is out of my price range right now. Never hurts to look though!
 
#2,774
Crosso, I LOVE 3jade's carved bangles too! Have always wanted one. I'm glad that they offer what they do because I have always been someone who likes non mainstream colors, like their olive green ones. Live and learn indeed! It's so hard when one thinks one is getting something, only to find out that it's not as you thought. Sorry you went through that as did I, buy hey, we learned a lot!

I do wish that it would be easier to learn about nephrite. The best books are in Chinese, but at least there one gets great pics. It would be great if someone who has been collecting for years would talk about it on the thread. Ive found people but they are usually on Asian art forums, where the focus is as much about when, the designs, etc.

In Regards to the winter bangles, I did Not buy one, but just discovered them. I was surprised that the mood of the bangles are somewhat similar...what do you think? The 2 top ones are jadeite. The 2 bottom are the Albite Feldspar Moonstone bangles.

winterbaangle2.jpg

winter bangle.jpg

IMG_4476.JPG

IMG_4477.JPG
I
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top