Buddhist Jade Bracelet, a Strand of Nephrite Beads
42,90 €
Buddhist jade bracelet: a strand of nephrite barrel beads in a gradient, from water green to dark green, with a small jade flower bud charm under a gilt cap.
The barrel beads lie flat against the wrist. No clasp, so it slips on in one movement: simply choose your wrist size.
A single-strand Buddhist jade bracelet, in nephrite barrel beads arranged in a gradient: from the palest water green to dark green, by way of a soft green leaning towards yellow. A small jade charm shaped like a flower bud, capped with an openwork gilt cap, hangs between two beads.
In four lines
A strand in a gradient of greens, from water green to dark green.
Barrel beads, which lie flat against the wrist.
A jade flower bud charm, under a gilt cap.
No clasp: it slips on in one movement, chosen by wrist size.
The whole range of jade, on a single wrist
This Buddhist jade bracelet is built like a colour chart. On one side, beads of an almost milky water green; opposite, a deep dark green, the one nephrite owes to iron; between the two, a soft green leaning towards yellow that makes the transition. Turning the bracelet takes you from one colour to the next without a single break.
Inside each bead, light veils and small variations: none is the copy of its neighbour.
The flower bud
At the foot of the strand, a small jade charm carved as a flower bud, pale and translucent, hangs beneath an openwork gilt cap shaped like a corolla. A tiny green stone is set into it. The charm moves at the slightest gesture and gives the bracelet its signature: it is the detail people notice first.
A plain strand, inspired by prayer beads
A strand of beads worn at the wrist, on the model of the Asian prayer strands, is often called a Buddhist bracelet. This one is not an object of worship, and I claim no effect for it: it is a piece of jewellery, borrowing from prayer beads their simple form, a circle of close-set beads that is a pleasure to turn between the fingers. What a strand of beads really counts.
The barrel shape and nephrite
The barrel bead is a small cylinder with rounded edges: it lies flat against the wrist instead of rolling, and shows more stone than a round bead. Nephrite, for its part, is the tougher of the two stones called jade: its interlocking fibres absorb the small knocks of a bracelet worn every day. Jadeite or nephrite, what sets them apart.
What to wear it with
Its gradient of greens makes it easy to match: it goes as well with white and beige as with khaki, navy or denim. The gilt cap of the charm sits well with a gold watch or bangle. On its own it dresses a wrist; with other strands, it brings the colour.
Wearing it, and keeping it beautiful
It has no clasp: it is worn on an elastic cord, which I will confirm on the sample, and goes on by rolling it over the hand rather than by pulling. Choose your wrist size above the buy button; with barrel beads, when in doubt, take the size above. Measuring your wrist in two minutes.
Take it off for the shower, the pool and sport: the elastic ages more slowly, and the gilding keeps its shine. A soft cloth is enough. Never ultrasonic, never steam, never solvent.Care in detail.
Additional information
Stone
Néphrite
Colour
Dark green, Light green
Stone shape
Barrel beads
Motif
No motif
Mounting
Elastic
Metal
Gold tone, alloy not stated
Setting
Drilled stone
Worn by
Unisex
Paired stones
Green stone, not identified
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 this bracelet
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 customs and images, old and documented, which I report because they are part of the history of this stone. No piece of jewellery in this shop is sold as a treatment or as an object of worship, and I claim no effect for this one.
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 bud about to openChinese has an expression for the flower bud on the point of opening, and it uses it for youth and for what holds promise. The charm on this bracelet takes up that image.
The left wristThe custom of wearing jade on the left is often reported, and tied to the idea of a side that receives. It is a habit, not a rule: nothing rules out the right.
The stone worn against the skinIn China a strand of jade is worn in contact with the skin, and it is said to take on there, little by little, a polish the display case will never give it.
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.
