People often ask: why do you have to purchase directly from the jade carver? Jade is not an item that you can make good purchases unless you are physically present with the seller. There is a Chinese saying: Diamond and Gold have a price, but Jade has no price". Diamonds and gold are priced by carat and karat, but jadeite is not like that. When you go to a jade market, there are no prices on the jade. Everything you purchase must be negotiated, bargained for.
The real jade markets, not the markets for tourists, are quite huge and different than "shops". This is what you see:
Then you start negotiating and chatting with the jade sellers.
We need to purchase larger sizes now because I still have a good inventory of Burmese jadeite "old mine" bangle bracelets, mined and carved around the turn of the century, and the sizes are mostly 51-60 mm, 60 mm being one of the largest sizes. Now more men want to wear jade bangle bracelets, and many women are more active, larger than the traditional small Chinese and Asian women 20+ years ago, so the shopping today is for sizes 60-72 mm.
During the "old mine" Burmese jadeite selling day, there was no question that the jade was "real", genuine and natural grade A. You could see what the carving shop was working on, and you could see it was genuine, natural and not bleached and color added. So certificates of gemology testing were extremely rare. Then there was the USA conflict with Myanmar and sanction put on bringing jadeite to USA . Sanctions were dropped on everything except jadeite until only a few years ago. During that time, sadly many people sold "fake jade", or color treated grades B and C but described it as "real, grade A". That's when it became common to purchase Chinese gemology testing certificates.
This newer jadeite is different from the "old mine". It is genuine jadeite, but often not as translucent, rare to find any imperial green color not even veins of imperial green. But the newer jadeite is still beautiful, just different.
And jade carving is different. In the Dynasty times, older times, the jade carver would study the stone, decide the best way to use the good features in bangles, pendants, other carvings. Then on an "auspicious day" the jade carver would carefully carve the jade stone to make the best use of the colors, veins, features. Today it is like a "job" that people get trained for, and work automatically according to what customers want.
When the jade arrives to us here in USA, we open the box and let the jade set outdoors for a couple of days, then wash it gently with soap and water, and let it set outdoors for a couple more days and a cool shady area so it is clean, COVID-19 free, and ready to photography, and list for sale.
So we have a new supply of the larger Burmese jadeite bangle bracelets with certificates of gemology testing now, and will be getting them ready to list over the next few weeks. The "China's Favorite Every Day Burmese Jadeite Bangle Bracelets with Certificates" are listed on both Ying Yu Jade (click to view) and Jade Heaven (click to view). They will also be in the "What's New" Collection when we finally get them well photographed, edited, described and ready to sell.
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