Jade snake pendant: a plaque of soft green speckled stone, carved in relief over its whole height, hung from a braided brown cord with a red agate bead.
Those born in 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013 and 2025 belong to this sign. Check the exact date before giving it: the Chinese year starts between 21 January and 20 February, so a January birth belongs to the previous sign.
The length is set by a sliding knot, nothing to measure. The red bead is agate, not jade. Why I write it down.
A jade snake pendant: a plaque of soft green speckled stone, carved in relief over its whole height, hung from a braided brown cord with a red agate bead. The snake is carved coiled in a spiral, head raised at the centre of its own coils.
In four lines
The Snake of the Chinese zodiac, carved in relief in the mass.
Speckled soft green plaque, braided brown cord, red agate bead.
Adjustable length by sliding knot: nothing to measure.
The red bead is agate, not jade, and the page says so.
The Snake in the Chinese zodiac
Those born in 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013 and 2025 belong to this sign.
Those years are approximate, and that matters. The Chinese year does not begin on 1 January but between 21 January and 20 February, following the lunisolar calendar. Someone born in January or early February usually belongs to the previous sign, so check the exact date before giving this.
The Snake comes sixth. He hid in the hoof of the Horse to cross the river, then slid out at the last moment, which startled the Horse into second place behind him.
Tradition lends him discretion and judgement, with a reserve that can pass for coldness. He is the sign associated with reflection rather than with action.
A carved plaque, and what the stone allows
The subject is not engraved on the surface, it is released in relief within the thickness of the plaque: the ground is cut away, the scrolls stand clear, and some parts are almost pierced through. That is work you cannot do on a brittle stone.
Jade takes it thanks to its toughness, the interlocked crystal structure that resists a crack spreading. This is not hardness: it is the property that made jade into axes before it made it into jewels. Hardness and toughness, two different things.
The stone is a speckled soft green, lighter in places and deeper in others. That irregularity is the opposite of a warning sign: a perfectly even colour is what dyeing produces, not formation.
The mounting, and what can be checked
The brown cord is braided and sets by a sliding knot: pull to shorten, spread to lengthen. No length to choose when ordering, and it wears as well short at the throat as long on the chest.
The red bead above the plaque is agate, a chalcedony. It is not jade, and its deep red most often comes from heating, an old process considered stable. I note it in the record rather than letting it pass as jade.
Outside Burma, country of extraction not confirmed
What tradition attributes to the sign and to jade
What follows changes register, and I flag it rather than blending it into the rest of the page. Nothing here is demonstrated. These are customs and beliefs, which I report because they are part of the history of this stone. No piece in this shop is sold as a remedy, and I claim no effect for this one.
The race of the twelveThe Snake comes sixth. He hid in the hoof of the Horse to cross the river, then slid out at the last moment, which startled the Horse into second place behind him.
What is attributed to the SnakeTradition lends him discretion and judgement, with a reserve that can pass for coldness. He is the sign associated with reflection rather than with action.
The year of your own signContrary to what you might expect, the year of your own sign is held to be unlucky, and many wear red that year to guard against it. It is one of the liveliest superstitions of the Chinese calendar, and it holds for all twelve.
A stone of moral virtueIn Confucian thought, jade is associated with qualities of character rather than effects on the body: uprightness, constancy, restraint. It is the best documented meaning of them all.
Shipped within 48 hours of your order being confirmed, for delivery within 14 days from the day it ships. I keep no buffer stock, and I will not promise a date I cannot meet.
Shipping Costs
€6.99 no matter the destination, and free on orders of €47 or more to France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Luxembourg. The exact amount shows in your cart before you pay.
The Packaging, and Why It Matters
Every piece leaves in its own pouch, kept apart from the others. This is not about presentation: jade’s hardness is ordinary, 6 to 6.5 for nephrite and 6.5 to 7 for jadeite, and the quartz in everyday dust rates 7. Two pieces of jewelry that travel together arrive scratched.
Fourteen Days to Change Your Mind
No reason needed. One email opens a return, and there is no form to fill out. Return shipping is at your expense, unless the piece does not match its listing or arrives damaged.
Lukewarm water, mild soap, a soft cloth. A very soft brush for the hollows of a carving. That is all, and it is enough.
What You Must Never Do, and Why
No ultrasonic cleaner, no steam, no solvent, no heat source. The reason is not caution for its own sake: the treatment status of my pieces is undetermined. My supplier cannot tell me, and the weighing establishes the mineral without saying anything about a possible resin impregnation. Resin withstands neither heat nor solvents, so every piece is handled as though it might contain some. The treatment information page.
The Scratch, and Where It Comes From
Jade is tough, meaning very hard to break: its structure of interlocking crystals resists cracking, and that is what made it possible to turn it into axes in the Neolithic. Its hardness, on the other hand, is ordinary, 6 to 6.5 for nephrite and 6.5 to 7 for jadeite. The quartz in everyday dust rates 7, and that is what dulls a jade, not impacts. The difference between the two.
Day to Day
Put the piece on after perfume and lotion, never before. Take it off for housework, gardening, and sports, where the hard knocks happen. Store each piece on its own, in its pouch. On a strand of beads, the thread wears out before the stone does: it gets restrung, and there is nothing abnormal about that.
My name is Jade. I am French, from Morbihan in Brittany, and I live in Tallinn. I choose the pieces and have them set: I mine nothing, I carve nothing, and I do not do the metalwork myself. What I bring is the sorting, and with this material the sorting decides everything.
I am not a gemologist, a lapidary, or a therapist, and I do not claim to be.
I Weigh, I Do Not Certify
Before putting a reference online, I order one example of it for myself. When it reaches me unset, I weigh it in air, then suspended from a thread in a glass of water: the ratio of the two masses gives the density, and that figure separates jadeite, nephrite, serpentine, and dyed quartzite without ambiguity.
One example per reference, and not every piece. I never handle the piece that ships to you, and I would rather say so plainly than let anyone believe otherwise. The method, with its three limitations.
What I Cannot Know
The treatment status of my pieces. My supplier cannot tell me, and neither can the scale: it establishes the mineral, not the resin impregnation. Only laboratory infrared spectroscopy would settle the question, and I do not have that testing done. So you will never read “jadeite A”, “type A” or “untreated” on this site. The information page.
Where My Jade Comes From
No Burmese jadeite, and the first reason is legal. Not the one you read everywhere: the JADE Act of 2008 did ban these stones in the United States, but that ban was lifted on October 7, 2016. What applies today dates from April 8, 2021: the US Treasury sanctioned Myanma Gems Enterprise, the state-owned company that controls the Burmese gem trade. So there is no blanket ban, but an American is not allowed to do business with that entity, and a stone never tells you where it has been. I run one supply chain for ten markets, and it has to stand up to the strictest one. When an origin is not confirmed to me in writing, the listing does not state it. My origin policy.
