Domed jade bangle, cut from a single block in a dark green nephrite. The section is rounded all the way round: no edge against the skin, and a line of light that runs along the rounding.
It is taken at the inside diameter, not at the wrist, and it does not open. Measure before ordering: hand closed, thumb folded, at the widest point.
Nephrite, subject to the weighing. Treatment status undetermined: my supplier does not know it, and my scale does not say it. Why I write it down.
A domed jade bangle, cut from a single block in a dark green nephrite. What sets it apart first is neither its width nor its colour, it is its profile: the section is rounded all the way round, and that rounding changes both the way it is worn and the way it takes the light.
In four lines
A rounded section all the way round, not flat: no edge touches the skin.
Cut from a single block, with no hinge, no clasp, no seam.
A speckled dark green, which lightens on the crest of the rounding as soon as the light grazes it.
Treatment status undetermined, and the page writes it rather than let anything be assumed.
A domed profile, and what it really changes
A bangle can be cut flat, like a closed ribbon, or domed, like a torus. The difference is not visible in a photograph taken from the front, and it is felt at once on the wrist.
Nothing catches. A flat bangle sets two edges against the skin, which mark after a few hours and snag in a jumper sleeve. A domed bangle has none: it rolls over the wrist bone instead of butting against it. It is the model you forget quickest, and that is the main reason for this profile.
Then there is the light. A flat surface returns an even reflection; a domed surface walks a bright line all along the rounding when you turn your arm. On a green this dark, it is that line which reveals the material, and that is why the second photograph on the page is a close up of the crest.
For the measurement the rule does not change: it is not the wrist you must measure, it is the passage of the hand. Hand closed, thumb folded as far as it will go into the palm, take the circumference at the widest point and divide by 3.14. The method in detail, and the size guide.
Nephrite, and the green of iron
Nephrite is a calcic amphibole, one of the two minerals the word jade covers, the other being jadeite, a pyroxene. A Frenchman separated them: in 1863 Alexis Damour established that these are two species with no kinship. The green of nephrite comes from iron, not from chromium, and that is why it turns towards the dark and the felted rather than towards the frank. What separates the two minerals.
Of the two, nephrite is the tougher: its fibrous crystals interlock into a felting that resists the spread of a crack remarkably well. It is that property, and not hardness, which allowed polished axes to be made in the Neolithic, and it is what permits a closed ring with no frame. The difference between hardness and toughness.
Why I write domed jade bangle
Because the shape of the section is what decides the comfort, and no other word names it. The section carries other green bangles, lighter, wider or thinner: this one is chosen for its profile.
As for the word jade on its own, it does not say much. What is sold under that name is very often serpentine, labelled new jade or Korean jade, or dyed quartzite, sold as Malaysia jade. None of those names denotes jade. The difference stays physical and it can be measured. All the bracelets in the section.
Additional information
Stone
Néphrite
Colour
Dark green
Stone shape
Solid bangle
Motif
No motif
Mounting
Rigid bangle
Metal
None
Setting
No setting
Worn by
Unisex
Mineral family
Calcic amphibole
Hardness (Mohs)
6 to 6.5
Reference density
2.90 to 3.03 g/cm³
Toughness
Exceptional, interlocking crystals
Treatment
Not determined
Origin
Outside Burma, country of extraction not confirmed
What tradition attributes to the jade bangle
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 left wristSeveral Chinese traditions associate wearing the bangle on the left wrist with the idea of receiving rather than giving. The custom is widespread; no basis is known for it other than custom itself. What tradition puts into a jade bracelet.
Never taking it offThe bangle is put on once and kept, sometimes for a lifetime. The closed shape has much to do with it: it is not a piece you choose in the morning, it is an object you wear.
The bangle that breaksTradition holds that a broken bangle took the blow in place of its wearer. It is a reading after the event, and it says above all how much attachment goes into a piece worn for a long time.
Nephrite, the jade of the ritualsBefore jadeite arrived from Burma in the eighteenth century, the jade of ancient China was nephrite, and it is of nephrite that the discs and tablets of the royal burials are made. The old texts that speak of jade therefore speak of that stone.
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.
