Jade flower ring: two blooms in a frank green, carved in the round and set side by side on a silver tone band, each with a small pink stone at its heart.
The band is open at the back, so this one adjusts to the finger. It is the exception of the section: every other jade ring here is a solid band that cannot be resized.
The pink stones are not announced by my supplier, and the silver is not hallmarked: I write silver tone, not 925. Why I write it down.
A jade flower ring: two blooms in a frank green, carved in the round and set side by side on a silver tone band, each with a small pink stone at its heart. The band is open at the back, so this one adjusts, which makes it the exception of the section.
In four lines
Two blooms carved in the round, not engraved on a surface.
Silver tone band open at the back: this one adjusts to the finger.
Claw set, so the stone comes out and can be weighed.
The silver is not hallmarked by my supplier: I write silver tone, not 925.
The only ring in the section that adjusts
All the other jade rings in the catalogue are solid bands cut from the stone: they cannot be resized, neither by filing nor by tightening, and they have to be right first time.
This one is different. The band is metal and it is open at the back, the two ends overlapping slightly. You widen it or close it by hand, gently, and it holds. It is the simplest answer when you do not know the size, and by far the easiest to give.
Two precautions: do not reshape it too often, because metal tires, and do not force it in one sharp movement. The size guide is still useful for starting from an approximate size. The size guide.
Carved in the round, and what that means
An engraving removes material from a flat surface. A carving in the round releases a complete volume, which can be looked at from every angle: here each flower has petals hollowed right through, a pierced centre to receive the pink stone, and a rounded back.
That is far more work than a cabochon, and far riskier: every thinned petal is a start for a fracture. Jade takes it thanks to its toughness, its interlocked crystals resisting the spread of a crack. No other common ornamental stone would hold at that thickness. The difference between hardness and toughness.
The two flowers are not identical, and that is normal: a hand carving repeats itself without superimposing. Perfect symmetry between the two would, on the contrary, be the sign of a casting.
What I do not know, and what I write
The two small pink stones at the heart of the flowers are not announced by my supplier. I am not going to call them rubies because they are red, nor spinel because it sounds well: they are flagged in the record as not announced, and they will stay so until I know more.
The silver is not hallmarked either. So I write it as silver tone, and not 925: a hallmark is information, and I do not invent it. The shop does carry one piece whose metal is genuinely hallmarked, the jade and sterling silver bracelet.
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.
The plum blossomThe plum tree flowers at the end of winter, on bare wood, often before the thaw. It figures tenacity in Chinese painting and poetry, and its five lobes are brought close to the five blessings of the traditional wish. What tradition puts into a jade bracelet.
Giving jadeIn ancient Chinese usage, jades were given to seal an agreement or mark an alliance, between families as much as between people. The object stood for a commitment, and its quality said how serious the giver was.
The jade you patinate by handChinese usage holds that a jade worn every day becomes warmer and brighter with the years. What changes is the surface, polished by friction and by the natural oils of the skin: the effect is real, the explanation is mechanical.
White before greenCultivated Chinese taste long placed white nephrite at the top, well above green. The present hierarchy comes from the trade in Burmese jadeite, and it is a matter of fashion rather than of quality.
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.
