BC jade beads and pendants

[JadeTwist]

Hello all at Rings & Things forum!

I’m a newbie here, and I have a question about the “B.C. jade” beads and beautiful Maori pendants you sell at Rings & Things. It says they are enhanced, and I’m wondering in what way? Is it real jade, or dyed serpentine, or even something else?
I hope somebody can tell me.

Kind regards,
JadeTwist

[Russ Nobbs]

Excellent question, JadeTwist!

We think that most (if not all) of the "BC Jade" beads we carry are true nephrite that is color enhanced to match the typical color of jade from British Columbia. True BC Jade IS available on the market but often twice the price of the color enhanced nephrite or the dyed serpentines. The Maori style pendants come from another supplier and are supposed to be actual BC Jade mined in Canada. That cutter also makes the same pendants in "new jade" (serpentine) and bone at much lower prices. 

The enhancing of jade is so common that it was only a chance question that alerted us to the fact that our main jade supplier in China could give us any color of "BC Jade" we wanted. She asked us how dark we wanted it to be. We knew that several suppliers with direct or family connections to British Columbia had a more expensive product but we had not thought to question why our supplier was more reasonable. Since we now know that even real nephrite and real jadeite are enhanced we are hesitant to call any of these products 100% natural since a supplier may switch from natural BC Jade to dyed Taiwan jade due to shortages in the marketplace and we'd never know.

Our free on line gem index says: B.C. jade has a mossy, medium-green color. Its name suggests that it is a nephrite jade found in British Columbia, Canada. Even though B.C jade is readily available from the Canadian mines, much of the stone marketed as B.C Jade is dyed stone, typically made from the stones referred to as "white jade" or the serpentine called "new jade." Due to the popularity of this color in Taiwan, some stones marked B.C. jade may actually be Taiwan jade (another true nephrite jade) dyed darker to match the jade mined in Canada. Without extensive testing, it is difficult to tell the difference between these stones. http://www.rings-things.com/gemstone/j.htm

Descriptive names in China are a problem for westerners who expect exact mineralogical names. During a visit to the Beijing Geological Museum Barbara at the Bead collector.net forum wrote down the following definition of Jade from a sign in the display case:

<< 'Jade' in China describes all polycrystalline and cryptocrystalline mineral aggregates and a few non-crystalline materials that are suitable for carving and making into jewellery. The caracteristics are beauty, colour, moderate hardness, tough and fine texture, and as well as nephrite and jadeite includes opal, serpentine, quartz, turquoise, lapis lazuli, malachite, dushun yu, marble, natural glass, rhodocrosite, solalite, and rhodonite.>>


 

[JadeTwist]

Hi Russ!

Thank you for your quick and informative reply. I really appreciate Rings & Things' honest information about the products. There are few companies who inform their customers about treatments of their gems.

I see it a lot with carnelian gems that are marketed as 'natural' but are clearly dyed.
I wonder if the beautiful red carnelian, like the antique roman and egyptian pieces that you see in museums, actually still exists in the market today. It seems to me that natural carnelian isn't available anywhere.

Personally I prefer natural stones over treated stones, but when it's clearly stated that a product is enhanced, I don't mind wearing jewelry with it either.

JadeTwist

[Russ Nobbs]

You are very welcome! It's just the way we think a business should be run. We've made mistakes and we correct them when they are pointed out.

"dyed" is not exactly the right word for enhanced red carnelian. Carnelinan is often sold in 2 forms - multicolored red agate or the solidly red. The first is natural agate stained red by iron in the earth. It's not usually uniformly red. The 2nd is enhanced by first soaking in acid (nitric I think) in which iron is dissolved. Then slowly heating to effectively rust the iron inside the crystal structure. That turns it red. The process is slow, 2 months or more, we've been told. A similar process is used for black onyx. Soaked in a sugar solution and then heated (or treated with sulfuric acid) to become black or deep brown. (Those are overly simplified descriptions of the German "beizen" process Jamey Allen describes in the forum at beadcollector.net)  These are old processes. The black onyx dating back to Roman times or earlier.

It's also possible the old goods were made by sawing the red or black layers out of banded sardonyx.

By the way, a google search for "jade information" gives several good sites. At one time I knew of a site with a very long list of imitations and varieties of jade but it seems to be off the web. If I find it again, I'll post it back here in this thread.

[signupslls1]

Russ,
Thanks for the mention of sardonyx.  I was reading the Index on agate, and thought of sardonyx, which I thought was a type of agate.  I did not find it in the Index though.  Searching the forum led to this message.  Wikipedia says sardonyx is a form of onyx, which seems reasonable.  Is this correct?

I remember recently seeing a list of so-called jades.  I bookmarked it, and will try to find it again, to share here.

FOUND THE BOOKMARK!  There are 3 related pages:
http://molly.kalafut.org/jade/fake.html

This page credits Rings&Things' gemstone index, and compliments your company's honesty (at the bottom of Avoiding Fake Jades).