Collection: Jade

Jade is a precious stone that has been highly prized for millennia for its beauty, rarity and symbolic qualities.

🌿 Origin and composition

The word jade actually refers to two distinct minerals:

• Jadeite : rich in sodium and aluminum, rarer and more precious. It is found in particular in Burma (Myanmar), Guatemala and Japan.

• Nephritis : more common, composed mainly of calcium and magnesium. It is found in China, Canada, Russia or New Zealand.

These two stones have a similar appearance (often green), but their chemical composition and crystal structure differ.

🎨 Colors of jade

Although jade is most often green , it can also occur in other colors:

• White (celestial jade)

• Lavender

• YELLOW

• Red/brown

• Black

The most valuable is the intense emerald green jadeite (called "imperial jade").

🏺 History and symbolism

Jade has played a major role in several civilizations:

• China : Symbol of purity, immortality, and imperial power. Confucius attributed moral virtues to it. Emperors had jade objects buried with the deceased.

• Mesoamerica (Mayans, Aztecs, Olmecs): Used for jewelry, funerary masks, and ritual objects. More valuable than gold.

• Maori (New Zealand) : Used in the manufacture of sacred tools and pendants ( hei-tiki ), passed down from generation to generation.

💎 Use

• Jewelry : rings, bracelets, pendants, pearls, etc.

• Crafts : sculptures, seals, decorative objects.

• Lithotherapy : Jade is said to be soothing, promote harmony and luck, and have beneficial effects on the kidneys.

🔍 How to recognize real jade?

Some criteria:

• Hardness : 6 to 7 on the Mohs scale.

• Texture : soft, almost soapy to the touch.

• Transparency : Varies from opaque to translucent.

• Professional test : spectroscopy or densimetry, because many imitations exist (glass, serpentine, quartzite, etc.).