Mala jade bracelet: a single thread of fine beads that goes three times round the wrist, in a deep blue green. With no clasp.
It is worn wound round, or undone as a short necklace. Few bracelets allow both, and that is what sets it apart from the other rows in the section.
I have not counted the beads and I do not call it a prayer mala until that is done. Species to be established by weighing, treatment status undetermined. Why I write it down.
A mala jade bracelet: a single thread of fine beads that goes three times round the wrist, in a deep blue green. It is the longest piece in the section and the dearest, and it is also the only one that can be worn two ways, on the wrist or undone as a short necklace.
In four lines
A single thread, three turns of fine beads, with no clasp.
Worn on the wrist or undone as a short necklace, as the morning decides.
A deep blue green, which changes a great deal from one bead to the next.
I do not call this piece a prayer mala, and the page says why.
Mala, and what the word really covers
A mala, in the strict sense, is a meditation rosary: one hundred and eight beads, plus a head bead, told to count recitations. The three or four turn bracelet format descends from it in form, not in function.
I have not counted the beads of this example, and I will not call it a prayer mala until I have. The word is used here for what it denotes in the jewellery trade: a long supple row that winds round. If the count comes out right on arrival, I will write it; if it does not, I will write that too.
It is the same principle as everywhere on this site: the word stays as long as it describes a form, it falls as soon as it claims to describe something else.
Three turns, and two ways of wearing it
Wound round, it holds tight on the wrist with no clasp: it is the elasticity of the stringing that keeps it there. The three turns never fall exactly the same way, and that is what gives it its slightly supple look, far from the rigid row.
Unwound, it makes a short necklace that sits at the base of the neck. Few bracelets allow that, and it is what justifies its price against the other rows in the section: you are buying two pieces.
The beads are fine, far finer than those of the other bracelets in the catalogue, which makes the whole light despite the length. It comes off for housework and sport, like any piece on a thread.
A blue green, and what to look at
The colour turns towards blue green, between sage and bottle, and it is not uniform: some beads are clearly darker, others almost translucent. That is the opposite of a warning sign. A row of three hundred rigorously identical beads is what a dye produces, not a rock.
The thing to do 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. On a row this long, one bead is enough to form an idea. The checks that need no equipment.
Outside Burma, country of extraction not confirmed
What tradition attributes to the mala 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.
One hundred and eight beadsThe meditation mala counts one hundred and eight beads, a number explained in several ways without any one of them carrying authority. A three turn bracelet descends from it in form, not in function, and I do not count the beads of this one. 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.
Telling beads, and what it doesPassing beads between the fingers is a gesture found in many traditions, Buddhist, Orthodox, Muslim. What is attributed to it belongs to the gesture itself, not to the material of the bead.
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.
