Carved knot jade bracelet: a row of beads in a translucent pale green, closed on two interlaced loops cut from a single piece of stone.
The two loops are not assembled, they are released from the mass. It is the toughness of jade that allows it, and no other ornamental stone would stand it.
It is taken at the wrist and goes on by stretching. Species to be established by weighing, treatment status undetermined. Why I write it down.
A carved knot jade bracelet: a row of beads in a very soft pale green, closed on two interlaced loops cut from a single piece of stone. It is the most discreet of the three models this listing carries, and the one whose central piece takes the most work.
In four lines
Two interlaced loops, cut from a single piece: nothing is assembled.
Round beads in a translucent pale green, strung on elastic.
Taken at the wrist: it goes on by stretching, with no fine measurement.
Two gilt spacers frame the central piece, plating on an alloy.
Two interlaced loops, and why that is difficult
The central piece is not an assembly of two rings. The two loops are released from a single block, one passing through the other, which means the lapidary hollowed out the material between them with no way of ever making good a mistake. On a brittle stone the exercise would be impossible.
That is where the toughness of jade comes in, and it is what sets it apart from other ornamental stones. Its structure of interlocked crystals resists the spread of a crack: it can be thinned, pierced, interlaced. Hardness has nothing to do with it, it is another property. The difference between hardness and toughness.
I do not call this piece an endless knot, and that is deliberate. The Buddhist endless knot is a braided, square motif where the ribbon crosses itself several times. Here there are two loops, no more. The drawing brings it to mind, it is not one.
A pale green, and what it asks of the light
The beads are a very light green, almost milky, clearly translucent. It is a colour that disappears under a flat light and comes alive near a window: the stone lets the daylight through and takes on a depth the photograph renders badly.
They are not all identical, and that is the opposite of a warning sign. What should make you pause is a row of rigorously similar beads: a perfectly reproducible colour is what a dye produces, not a rock.
The thing to do, here as on any row of beads, is to look at the drill hole. On a dyed stone the colourant concentrates there and the rim is darker than the rest. The colour also follows the micro cracks, in a network, instead of spreading through the mass. The checks that need no equipment.
Outside Burma, country of extraction not confirmed
What tradition attributes to jade and to knots
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.
Knots, and what they are notThe Buddhist endless knot is a braided ribbon that crosses itself several times, and the idea attached to it is the chaining of causes. The two loops of this bracelet are not one: they bring it to mind, that is all, and I prefer to say so. What tradition puts into a jade bracelet.
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.
The jade you patinate by handA row of beads worn every day ends by taking a polish the workshop does not give. Tradition sees in it an exchange between the stone and its wearer; it is mostly friction, and it is quite real.
Two linked ringsTwo circles passing one through the other are an image of attachment in just about every culture, and the Chinese is no exception. It is a broad reading, with no precise text behind it.
Dispatched within 48 hours of your order being confirmed, for delivery within 14 days from dispatch. I keep no buffer stock, and I won’t promise a timeframe I couldn’t meet.
Postage charges
€6.99 to any destination, free on orders of €47 or more to France, Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg. The exact amount appears in the cart before you pay.
The packaging, and why it matters
Every piece ships in its own pouch, kept apart from the others. This isn’t about presentation: the hardness of jade is ordinary, between 6 and 6.5 for nephrite and 6.5 to 7 for jadeite, and the quartz in everyday dust sits at 7. Two pieces of jewellery that travel together end up scratching each other.
Fourteen days to change your mind
With no need to explain yourself. An email is enough to open a return, there is no form to fill in. Return postage is at your expense, unless the piece doesn’t match its listing or arrives damaged.
The wrong size is the main reason for a return in this category, and jade cannot be resized the way a solid metal band can. Two minutes of measuring almost always prevents it. The size guide.
Warm water, mild soap, a soft cloth. A very soft brush for the hollows of a carving. That’s all, and it’s enough.
What you must never do, and why
No ultrasonic cleaner, no steam, no solvent, no heat source. This isn’t a token precaution: the treatment status of my pieces is not established. My supplier doesn’t know, and weighing establishes the mineral without saying anything about a possible resin impregnation. Resin tolerates neither heat nor solvents, so every piece is handled as though it might contain some. The information sheet on treatments.
Scratches, and where they come from
Jade is tough, meaning very hard to break: its interlocking crystal structure resists fracturing, and that is why axes could be shaped from it 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 sits at 7: that is what dulls jade, not knocks. The difference between the two.
Day to day
Put the piece on after perfume and cream, never before. Take it off for housework, gardening and sport, where the knocks against corners happen. Store each piece on its own, in its pouch. On a strand of beads, the thread wears out before the stone: it gets restrung, and there is nothing abnormal about that.
My name is Jade. I’m French, from Morbihan, and based in Tallinn. I choose the pieces and have them set: I mine nothing, I cut nothing, and I don’t do the metalwork myself. The work I do is the sorting, and with this material that is what decides everything.
I am neither a gemmologist, nor a lapidary, nor a therapist, and I don’t claim to be.
I weigh, I don’t 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, not every piece. I don’t handle the piece that goes out to you, and I would rather say so than let you believe otherwise. The method, with its three limits.
What I can’t know
The treatment status of my pieces. My supplier doesn’t know, and the scales say nothing about it: they establish the mineral, not the resin impregnation. Only infrared spectroscopy in a laboratory would settle it, and I don’t have that done. So you will never read “jadeite A”, “type A” or “untreated” on this site. The information sheet.
Where my jade comes from
No Burmese jadeite, and the first reason is a legal one. Not the reason you read everywhere: the JADE Act of 2008 did indeed ban these stones in the United States, but that ban was lifted on 7 October 2016. What applies today dates from 8 April 2021: the US Treasury sanctioned Myanma Gems Enterprise, the state-owned company that controls the Burmese gem trade. So there is no general ban, but an American is not allowed to trade with that entity, and a stone never tells you where it has passed through. One single supply chain for ten markets: it has to hold up for the most demanding of them. When an origin isn’t confirmed to me in writing, the listing doesn’t state it. My sourcing policy.
