Jade Beads

Appearance

White jade is nephrite, a creamy to ivory white with a soft glow and occasional gray clouds. Canadian and Burmese jade are green, the Burmese jadeite more translucent. Guatemalan jadeite runs from blue-green to a dark forest green with black flecks. Yellow jade and olivine jade are trade names, usually for serpentine or quartzite: yellow jade is a warm honey to butter color, olivine jade a soft pale green.

A polished finish gives all of these a waxy to glassy luster, a matte finish turns them stony and soft, and faceting works best on the harder quartzite-based colors. Nephrite is 6 to 6.5 on the Mohs scale, jadeite 6.5 to 7, and both are tougher than almost any other bead stone.

Formation and origin

Nephrite grows as a dense mat of amphibole fibers where magnesium-rich rock is altered at low pressure; jadeite is a sodium aluminum pyroxene that forms deep in subduction zones and surfaces in only a few places, chiefly Myanmar and the Motagua valley of Guatemala. Nephrite is mined in British Columbia, Siberia, Xinjiang in China and New Zealand.

Pairings

Amazonite beads: opaque turquoise green sits well beside white or yellow jade and shares a similar hardness.

Hematite beads: dark metallic spacers give pale nephrite and colored strands a clean, structured look.

Carnelian beads: warm orange against white or green jade, a color pair common in Chinese jewelry.

Lore and Meaning

Jade has long been valued above gold in China, carved into ritual discs and burial suits as a symbol of purity, wisdom and long life. The Olmec and Maya carved jadeite into masks and offerings, and the Maori shaped nephrite into pendants passed down through families. In modern crystal traditions jade is associated with luck, calm and the heart chakra. These are traditional beliefs, not claims of physical effect.