Jade flower earrings: a five petalled flower carved from a pale green stone, from which three drops of green beads descend under chased caps.
The drops move freely: it is the principle of the Chinese buyao, the ornaments that come alive with the walk. This piece is not looked at in a photograph, it is looked at in movement.
The flower and the beads are not the same green, and the page does not deduce that it is the same stone. Why I write it down.
Jade flower earrings: a five petalled flower carved from a pale green stone, its heart marked by a small gilt ball, from which three drops of green beads descend under chased caps. They move and chime at the slightest movement.
In four lines
A five petalled flower carved from a pale green stone.
Three drops of green beads under each flower, under chased caps.
The flower and the beads are not the same green, and the page says so.
The record will be published: the flower comes off, so it can be weighed.
A piece that moves, and what that changes
The three drops hang freely under the flower, each on its own post. At the slightest tilt of the head they shift, knock together and return the light in different directions. This is a piece that is not looked at in a photograph, it is looked at in movement.
This kind of mounting has a name in Chinese jewellery: it is called buyao, literally moves when walking, and since the Han it has denoted the ornaments with mobile pendants worn in the hair. The idea was that the walk should bring the piece alive.
The other side of movement is catching. Three free drops are easily taken in a knit, a collar or a lock of hair. It is not a pair to pull a jumper over. How to store a jade piece.
Two greens on the same earring
The flower is a pale green, almost milky, fairly opaque. The beads of the drops are darker and more translucent, with shades that vary from one bead to the next. These are plainly not the same stones.
My supplier announces only one word for the whole, and I am not going to deduce from that that they are the same material. The record therefore carries the beads on their own line, as elements of a different green from the flower.
It is not a defect: the difference of tone between the flower and its drops is part of the design, and a perfectly matched set would in fact be flatter. But a page should say so rather than let a piece of one single stone be imagined.
What the weighing will be able to establish
The flower is drilled at the centre and mounted on a looped post, like the beads. It comes off by opening the loop with pliers, with no glue to break. I will do it on the example I order, never on a piece being sold.
What is sold under the name of jade is very often serpentine, around 2.6, or dyed quartzite, around 2.65, when nephrite starts at 2.90. On a pale stone the gap stays frank with those two candidates.
Outside Burma, country of extraction not confirmed
What tradition attributes to the flower 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.
Moves when walkingThe buyao, ornaments with mobile pendants, are attested in the hair of court women as early as the Han. Their name says exactly their principle: the walk brings the piece alive, and a measured walk brings it alive gracefully.
The five petalled flowerFive petals suggest the plum blossom, which opens at the end of winter on bare wood and figures tenacity throughout scholarly painting. The comparison is also often made with the five blessings of the traditional wish.
Jade at the earsThe jueshi, slit jade rings worn at the ear, are among the oldest known Chinese ornaments: examples are found in Neolithic burials, long before the discs and the belt pendants.
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.
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.
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.
