Black jade necklace: a Saint Jude medal carved in relief in a plaque of black stone, bordered with small beads. Halo, flame, medallion with the face of Christ.
Chain included, no length to choose. A medal of stone does not tarnish and quickly takes the warmth of the skin.
A black jade necklace carried by a Saint Jude medal: a plaque of black stone with a rounded top, where the saint is carved in relief, full length, in a frame of small beads. The chain is included.
In four lines
Saint Jude carved in relief, full length, in a black plaque.
A border of small beads carved in the same stone.
Chain included: no length to choose.
A medal of stone, which does not tarnish the way a metal does.
Saint Jude, carved in relief
This black jade necklace is a small sculpture in its own right. Saint Jude is shown full length, with all the attributes that identify him: the halo around the head, the small flame above it, the medallion with the face of Christ he holds against his chest, and the long staff he holds in the other hand. His cloak falls in deep folds, worked into the thickness of the stone.
The relief stands out against a smooth ground, and a border of small beads, carved one by one in the same plaque, frames the figure like an old medal.
A deep black, between matte and satin
The stone is a deep black, satin on the ground and brighter on the relief, where the polishing catches the light. This play of matte and bright brings out the face and the folds of the cloak as soon as you tilt the medal. A small drill hole, at the top of the plaque, takes the chain.
A medal to wear every day
It is worn on the chain supplied, under a shirt or in view over a jumper. Its sober black makes it as right at a man’s neck as at a woman’s. For those with a devotion to Saint Jude, it is also a gift that means something, for a birthday, a feast day or a stage of life. Giving a piece of jade jewellery.
A medal of stone rather than of metal
A medal of stone does not tarnish, does not blacken and does not turn the skin green. It takes the warmth of the body in a few minutes. Nephrite is also the tougher of the two stones called jade: its interlocking fibres absorb small knocks. Like any stone, however, it can split if it falls flat onto a tiled floor: put it away, do not leave it on the edge of a washbasin. Hardness and toughness, the difference.
Wearing it, and keeping it beautiful
Take it off for the shower, the pool and sport. The hollows of the relief hold dust and creams: a soft toothbrush, warm soapy water, a rinse and a thorough drying are enough. Never ultrasonic, never steam, never solvent.Care in detail.
Additional information
Stone
Néphrite
Colour
Black
Stone shape
Engraved plaque
Motif
Saint Jude Thaddeus
Mounting
Chain
Metal
Silver tone, alloy not stated
Setting
Drilled stone
Worn by
Unisex
Paired stones
None, jade only
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 Saint Jude and to jade
What follows changes register, and I flag it rather than blending it into the rest of the page. None of it is proven. These are devotions and beliefs, old and documented, which I report because they are part of the history of this medal. No piece of jewellery in this shop is sold as a treatment or as an object of protection, and I claim no effect for this one.
The patron of hopeless causesSaint Jude Thaddaeus, one of the twelve apostles, is invoked in Catholic tradition for situations that seem to have no way out. It is that devotion that made his medal a much worn one.
The flame and the faceThe flame above his head recalls Pentecost. The medallion he holds carries the face of Christ, after an old legend that links him to the image sent to King Abgar of Edessa.
San Judas TadeoIn Mexico, the devotion to Saint Jude is one of the most alive: on the 28th of every month, crowds come to the church of San Hipólito, in Mexico City, with his statue or his medal.
A stone of moral virtueIn Confucian thought, jade itself is associated with qualities of character rather than effects on the body: uprightness, constancy, restraint.
Dispatch within 48 hours of your order being confirmed, for delivery within 14 days from dispatch. I keep no stock in reserve, and I will not promise a date I could not meet.
Shipping Costs
€6.99 whatever the destination, free on orders over €47 to France, Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg. The exact amount is shown in your basket before you pay.
The Packaging, and Why It Matters
Every piece travels in its own pouch, kept apart from the others. This is not a question of presentation: the hardness of jade is unremarkable, between 6 and 6.5 for nephrite and 6.5 to 7 for jadeite, and the quartz in ordinary household dust sits at 7. Two pieces of jewellery that travel together arrive marked.
Fourteen Days to Change Your Mind
No need to give a reason. An email is enough to open a return; there is no form to fill in. Return postage is at your expense, unless the piece does not match its listing or arrives damaged.
Getting the size wrong is the most common reason for a return in this category, and jade cannot be resized the way a solid metal band can. Two minutes spent measuring almost always avoids it. The size guide.
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 cleaners, no steam, no solvents, no heat source. This is not a precaution for show: the treatment status of my pieces is undetermined. My supplier does not know it, and weighing identifies the mineral without telling me anything about a possible resin impregnation. Resin withstands 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 difficult to break: its structure of interlocking crystals resists cracking, and that is what made it usable for axe heads in the Neolithic. Its hardness, by contrast, is unremarkable, 6 to 6.5 for nephrite and 6.5 to 7 for jadeite. The quartz in ordinary household dust sits at 7: that is what dulls a 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 knocks against hard edges are common. 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. French, from Morbihan, living in Tallinn. I choose the pieces and have them mounted: I mine nothing, I cut nothing, and the metalwork is not done by my hand. What I bring is the selection, and with this material that is what decides everything.
I am not a gemmologist, not a lapidary, not a therapist, and I do not claim to be.
I Weigh, I Do Not Certify
Before a listing goes online, I order one example of it for myself. When it reaches me unmounted, 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 listing, and not every piece. I do not handle the piece that is sent to you, and I would rather write that down than let you believe otherwise. The method, with its three limits.
What I Cannot Know
The treatment status of my pieces. My supplier does not know it, and the scales do not tell me: they identify the mineral, not the resin impregnation. Only infrared spectroscopy in a laboratory would settle it, and I do not have that done. So you will never read “Grade A jadeite”, “Type A” or “untreated” on this site. The information sheet.
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 7 October 2016. What applies today dates from 8 April 2021: the US Treasury sanctioned Myanma Gems Enterprise, the state company that controls the Burmese gem trade. So there is no blanket ban, but a US person is not allowed to trade with that entity, and a stone never tells you where it has been. A single supply chain serves ten markets, so it has to hold up in the most demanding of them. When an origin is not confirmed to me in writing, the listing does not state it. My origin charter.
