Double Ring Jade Bracelet, Two Interlaced Circles

40,90 €

Double ring jade bracelet: a row of tender green beads closed on two circles passing one through the other, released from a single piece of stone.

Nothing is assembled, no solder and no glue. It is the toughness of jade that allows the stone between the two rings to be thinned without breaking.

It is taken at the wrist and goes on by stretching. Species to be established by weighing, treatment status undetermined. Why I write it down.

How to measure your size: the guide, category by category

A tape measure right at the wrist bone, laid on without pulling tight.

Category:

A double ring jade bracelet: a row of tender green beads closed on two circles passing one through the other, released from a single piece of stone. It is the most geometric of the three models in this listing, and the easiest to wear every day.

In four lines

  • Two interlaced rings, released from a single piece: nothing is assembled.
  • Round beads in a tender green, strung on elastic, with no clasp.
  • Taken at the wrist: it goes on by stretching, with no fine measurement.
  • Two gilt spacers frame the central piece, plating on an alloy.

Two circles in a single block

The two rings are not fitted one into the other afterwards. They are released from the same stone, one passing through the other, which means the lapidary hollowed out the material between them with no way of making good a mistake. There is no solder, no glue, no join to look for.

What that requires is a stone that does not break when it is thinned. The toughness of jade, its structure of interlocked crystals resisting the spread of a crack, is exactly the property that permits this kind of piece. Hardness has nothing to do with it. The difference between hardness and toughness.

In use it is also the easiest drawing to live with: two clean circles, nothing to snag a jumper, nothing to jam. The bracelet turns without the central piece getting in the way.

A tender green, deeper than the knot model

The beads are a frank but soft green, a little more loaded than those of the carved knot model, which comes from the same listing. The translucency is the same: near a window the stone lets the daylight through and takes on a depth the photograph renders badly.

The beads are not all identical, and that is the opposite of a warning sign. A rigorously uniform row is what a dye produces, not a rock.

The thing to do, here as elsewhere, 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. The checks that need no equipment.

The same row exists in three versions

Three bracelets that differ only in the central piece: these two rings, two interlaced loops in the shape of a knot, and a stringing with two red agate beads. The beads and the stringing are the same.

As for the word jade on its own, it does not say much: what is sold under that name is very often serpentine or dyed quartzite. None of those names denotes jade. All the bracelets in the section.

Additional information

StoneJadeite or nephrite, not resolved
ColourLight green
Stone shapeRound beads
MotifNo motif
MountingElastic
MetalGold tone, alloy not stated
SettingDrilled stone
Worn byWomen
Mineral familyCalcic amphibole, Sodium aluminium pyroxene
Hardness (Mohs)6 to 7
Reference density2.90 to 3.36 g/cm³
ToughnessExceptional, interlocking crystals
TreatmentNot determined
OriginOutside Burma, country of extraction not confirmed

What tradition attributes to jade and to rings

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 circle, a full form In ancient Chinese thought the circle refers to Heaven, the square to Earth: that is the reading of the ritual jade discs. Two linked circles have no codified meaning for all that, and I am not going to invent one. What tradition puts into a jade bracelet.
A stone of moral virtue In 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 hand A 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.
Two linked rings Two circles passing one through the other are an image of attachment in just about every culture, and the Chinese is no exception. It is a broad reading, with no precise text behind it.

These readings are told, not verified. The virtues attributed to jade, said honestly, and the moral virtues in Confucius.

A stone does not replace a doctor and treats nothing: the full warning is here.

Delivery Times

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.

It is all set out here, with no small print.

The Simple Routine

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.

Cleaning a piece of jade jewellery and storing it.

What I Do, and What I Do Not Do

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.

The whole story.