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.
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.
