One of the gem sellers had some vintage old Burmese jadeite pendants and carvings. They were beautiful, and very expensive. And I didn't purchase anything from him. The other gem seller pulled out a tray of Burmese jadeite beads bracelets. The smooth beads were reasonable prices that I could sell online, but I have a sufficient amount in my inventory. He still had some of the carved beads bracelet and was selling them for almost the price I have them listed.
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| Jade Heaven Carved Burmese Jadeite Grade A Bead Bracelets |
We discussed that each bead needs careful carving, and using the more expensive grade A genuine and natural jadeite is risky because drilling the hole, doing the carving results in some breakage, which is total loss for the jade carver.
He goes to Hong Kong several times a year to purchase jadeite. Some of his contacts in Hong Kong who shop for jade go directly to the jade carvers near the Burma border to buy wholesale and then sell to gem sellers who buy wholesale from him. He got very serious and told me it is extremely difficult to sell jadeite these days because of all the fakes. He mentioned a company in Tianjin that makes beautiful fake jadeite, color treated aventurine or other gem that can be made to look like jadeite. He is very experienced and said that sometimes it fools him, too. He just shakes his head when I tell him all my sales are online. We agreed there is so much drama around jade, and it is very frustrating to be a genuine natural jade seller. I told him that when my inventory gets lower, I am not going order again, and that will be the end of my jade selling. Sad, but that's the way it is. My regular jade supplier in China who never leaves the country and works with my jade carver said the same thing is happening with his jade sales. He said buyers don't understand why the prices for his jade is higher than some of the exporters, because we have worked together almost 20 years and sells only genuine and natural Chinese jade and Burmese jadeite.
So it's the first time at the gem show that I didn't buy any jade!
To cheer me up, I wandered through some of the other gem sellers booths and was very tempted to buy up some of the gorgeous gem jewelry. I put my "gift list" in my mind, and purchased a few things for gifts for friends. One seller had very different gemstone items, including small trees made with gemstones. I have seen the trees with all the different gemstones as branches, but this seller had these gorgeous amethyst trees.
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| Genuine amethyst small tree |
The photo just can't capture how beautiful it really is. All the little stones making up the leaf clusters, and some amethyst stones coming through the stone base. I bought one for a girlfriend who is a Reiki master. It "screamed her name" at me when I looked at it!
And as I wandered I did see "jade" being sold as genuine and natural when it obviously wasn't. But most buyers didn't know that, and were buying it because of the low price.
This morning I received an email from a customer looking for a certain jadeite bangle bracelet, and telling me about she always gets "cheated" and ripped off buying jade in Western markets, China Towns. And I have been hearing that from many people over the years. It's so sad that has happened to the reputation of jade it probably won't improve. If you are reading this, you know where you can buy genuine and natural jade.
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