Ying Yu Jade
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We'll be out of town on vacation until May 4. Orders placed after 8 PM EST April 25 will be shipped May 4. I'll check emails daily. If you're ordering for Mother's Day, and you order while we're gone, your order will probably arrive before Mother's Day if you place it online. Of course, I will be checking out jade at every opportunity, and hope to have some "traveling jade stories" when I return! April 24
I received questions about the carved black jade bangle I recently listed, about the color. I've had these for awhile, I wanted to see if there was any color change, because they were marked as natural color, and the color hasn't faded so it's natural. Natural black jade is usually very deep dark green, and when I took the photo I could see the green hues in the light I use to inspect each jade piece. I had some Chinese jade bangles carved for me from "black" jade that is dark green, and you can see the green better in these. The color comes from minerals seeping into the jade stone. Green jade is the most common color, and black is the second most common color because of minerals causing the darker color or black color. It's interesting, I enjoy wearing black jade with jeans, and I wear a lot of khaki, white and black together, looks good with that color combination. April 23
USPS postage is increasing May 12. I will probably see what actual shipping costs are when I process orders before I raise any of YYJ shipping prices. Priority mail and international mail prices are going to increase the most, with the cost of insurance and signature confirmation. I started using signature confirmation earlier this spring because quite a few packages that the delivery confirmation showed were delivered actually didn't get to customers, and mysteriously disappeared. Now I ship almost all packages valued over $150 with signature confirmation, so you can sign for your package. This may be an inconvenience for you, if you're not home when your package arrives the delivery person will leave a notice for you to pick up your package at the post office. I was using stamps.com with insurance so you don't have to sign for insured packages, but stamps.com won't accept loss claims unless I use signature confirmation. So postal theft has become an inconvenience and additional expense for you and me, but that's the way the world is now, sorry to say. I will always do my best to make sure your orders are well packed, shipped quickly and in a way they will arrive to you safely and securely. April 22
The weekly special pearl necklace and earrings set has been a popular purchase this week. I put a photo of an organza optional gift bag, but customers have come up with interesting ideas for presenting these. A couple of customers ordered the silk purses to put the pearls in for a "double gift", and another customer ordered jade ben wa balls as "kegel pearls" to go along with the pink pearls. My favorite gift packaging for ben wa ball, pendants is the "silk fortune cookies" Of course, jade is beautiful all by itself! April 21
If you are thinking about purchasing special gifts for Mother's Day, I want to let you know that we will be out of town April 26-May 3. Although our store is "always open" and your emails are responded to, the shipping of orders placed after noon on April 25 will be shipped on May 4. So plan ahead, don't miss out getting a special gift for a special person (or for yourself!) April 20
I'm going to leave Friday's daily special on for Saturday also. The old mine jadeite is especially pretty with more natural color than usual. When the jade carver finds some good veins of brighter color, he carves the rough so that he can get as many bangles as possible utilizing the good color, so you often see this pattern where it's on part of the bangle, not all of the bangle. If it were on all of the bangle, it would be very expensive because the middle that's cut out would be "waste" as pendants don't make as much profits for him as bangles, so using this cut where there's some "good" color on several bangles, he can offer them for a lower price, but still get the exquisite and rare coloring. The smaller translucent daily special bangle is also a "chameleon", it has beautiful delicate "clouds" of color in it that the camera can't capture. I sold out the FUWA keychains, so added a pink pearls necklace and earrings special, buy the necklace, get the earrings for only $5. Mother's Day is coming. We're taking a week vacation the end of the month and when we get back it will be the week before Mother's Day, which is cutting it close for getting any special purchases on time for May 11. April 18
Thursdays Daily
Specials are both terrific quality jadeite bangles, at great discounts
because they're preview prices. That means if I sell them, I don't have
to put them on the main web site pages and link them up, which is time
consuming, so you get a discount if you buy it before I do all the work.
Sometimes people ask why they can't get the Daily Special price after
it's the daily special, and that's because more work, and cost of web
hosting fees, goes into putting it on the main web site. But of course
if you are a repeat customer, you can always ask for a discount! The 64mm
fei cui green jadeite bangle is a real "chameleon". You can
get a hint of what I mean by looking at the photo around the edges where
the jade is a little thinner and see that it looks a little lighter. When
I hold the bangle up to the sunlight, it's much lighter and you can see
all the natural "flowering" of the jade stone. But even though
I took the photo in daylight I used a flash to get a better photo, and
the blast of flash light reflects off the polish and shows how it looks
inside or in lesser light. Some jades are chameleons, and look so different
in varied lighting. There's very green bangle BB933. this
is a link to it, I get questions if it's dyed because of the way the
color shows. When you see it "in person" its different, but
it also looks like the photo in darker lighting. Isn't jade interesting!
Both of the daily specials are excellent deals, if you think you want
one, get it before it goes on the web site at the regular price.
April 16
Wednesdays Daily Specials are carved jadeite bangles in two sizes. If you check the Daily Specials regularly, you know it's rare to find carved jade bangles as specials. It's difficult to find and purchase genuine jade bangles that are carved. The smaller bangle has some translucence, which is also rare to find in carved jade bangles. Last month when we were at the Guangzhou jade market, I set out one day with the purpose of purchasing 35-50 carved jade bangles. During our entire shopping trip, I was able to purchase only 7! The nicer quality carved bangles had a lot of "jelai", jade root that looks like cracks but really isn't, and although they are not considered cracked, my customers don't like to see that. There were several small sizes, but I have small sizes in inventory. Most were truly aweful, either very dyed or fake jade. The 7 I purchased were in Sihui, and quite expensive, but I considered going back there to get some more. Then I thought about the two hour drive each way, and the $200 fee for a taxi or private car to get there, and decided against it. The two daily special carved bangles are nice for the price, pretty jade carvings you can wear. April 15
The weekly special is a jadeite chrysanthemum flower bracelets, woven into an adjustable silk knotted band with decorative jade beads. It can be adjusted to fit a young child, or for a larger 8" wrist. I saw women wearing these in China, and my assistant bought one for herself and put it on right away, and then bought some for her friends. I bought 50, so we got a good price. But I should have purchased more because when "the girlfriends" wanted to know what I bought for them in China, and saw these bracelets, they were the first to go, they loved them and more than half my inventory is gone! And my sisters-in-law want me to save them for when we go to Ohio and Pennsylvania next month! So I put my remaining of one of the styles on for a weekly special, sorry I don't have more. By the way, mine got really dirty in China and I took it off, put it in my pocket, then forgot to take it out when I washed my pants, but it came out of the washer clean and undamaged, and that seems to be a good way to clean these and the flower jade pendant necklaces (use delicate cycle). April 14
One of my friends who purchased a soft white "lao pit" jadeite bangle wrote that the jade color didn't really "go" with all her outfits, some colors made it look dull. I was surprised that my bangle didn't look good with an apple green shirt I wore a couple of days ago. I guess that's why we like to have a "wardrobe" of jade bangles. Some women also wear their jade as "medicine", for the energy they need for the day. I also noticed that when I use a black fabric for the background for photos the jade color looks different than when I use my classic white silk fabric, and white gives the "most true" color, although black brings out the more subtle hues of jade. You can experiment with your jade, if one of your jade bangles doesn't look good with "everything", wear it for a few weeks without taking it off and see if it gets more chameleon-like because of your body qi. If you try this, let me know and I'll share your experience on the blog. April 12
I received my shipment of Chinese jade today, 7 boxes delivered by UPS, COD! Good thing I was home to write a check for 70kg of beautiful Chinese jade. I received some "water jade" bangles with the modern flat shape, they are lovely. Most of the shipment was jade rollers, gua sha tools, a new styleof jade roller with bumps to stimulate the acupuncture points, jade pointers and jade "needles" for needle-less acupuncture. I designed some of the jade healing items, for example the gua sha tools were traditionally made from bufallo horn, but jade is more natural for the body, and a jade alternative means an animal doesn't have to suffer so we can feel better. The new Chinese jade bangles are sizes 53-54mm and 60mm, and the jade is the nicest quality I've seen, green and "watery". These kinds of jade bangles are traditionally rounded inside, but they can be "clunky" to wear as the roundes is thick, so these are an alternative for a more comfortable, slender jade bangle. I had always worn the classic rounded, but like my new little flat one very much. When I get all those boxes unpacked and put away, I'll list the new items. April 9
My jade supplier asked me if I wanted to place an order with him for jadeite bangles for October. He knows I went to China last month and bought a year's inventory of jade, but he thought I might like to place a "small order". He knows I can't say "no" to an offer for more jade bangles! I have some customers who have been buying from me since I started selling on ebay 9 years ago as one of the first sellers of Chinese jade, and have continued to make purchases. There are a few customers who might have a jade bangle for every week of the year. I love them, you love them, so of course I will let my supplier buy more for us! April 8
Across the street from the Guangzhou jade market is a wholesale pearl market, a huge building take covers an entire city block with at least 9 floors, packed with tiny shops. The first floor is mostly pearl vendors. But pearls are actually the minority of what's sold there. It's a potpourri of everything you can imagine related to jewelry. I listed some of the varieties of jade earrings I purchased for the Weekly Special. There are thousands and thousands of shops, and not organized by type of product, so you can wander around forever looking at stuff. Then it all starts looking the same. It made my truly clausterphoic and physically ill, so overwhelmed. I would have loved to buy some strings of semi precious gemstone and glass beads, but it was wholesale and they didn't want to sell a few, they expected you to buy "many many" or they wouldn't bother with you. "many many" was the only English they knew. I was looking for jade and silver, jade and gold, and 24k gold items. We were hopelessly turned around and trying to find our way "out" when I spotted a shop with jade and silver, and bought everything I wanted there instead of shopping around. This building was so tremendously huge that I injured my feet from all the walking, and although I was wearing athletic shoes, my feet bruised badly. It's three weeks later, and my toenails still have huge bruises from walking too much, and I've had to wear purplish polish instead of the red I like to coordinate with the bruise color! I still can't believe that happened. China seems "larger, bigger" than America, a block on a street is a big block. I "train" to get in better physical condition before our China trips, because they are so physically demanding. I could spend weeks there shopping, but my body couldn't handle it! April 6
I finally have photos of the three jade bangles I bought for myself on our shopping trip. They're on this page of the travelog. Jade bangles click here . The white one was the most expensive. It doesn't have much translucence but the imperial green vein on the pure unbleached white is what gives it the high value. The other expensive jade bangle is the "glass" oval jade bangle, in person it is very glassy and icy and I tried for a long time to get an accurate photo but can't capture all the "glassiness". The lao pit jadeite bangle is the kind of jade that is considered "modern" because in the past, this kind of jade was bleached to rmove the "undesirable" dark color, but with the trend to more natural jadeite, there were more jade bangles with the darker color. Unfortanately for many of my customers, the only sizes were Chinese sizes, 50-55mm. It's a nice "cuff" and I've worn it ever since I bought it, except for one day I wore the white with imperial green bangle. I think we are attracted to the jade that gives us the energy we need, and I love this jade bangle! April 4
Every few days
I get asked how I test for jade being natural color when I buy it. The
"good" sellers at the wholesale jade markets have special lights
for showing off the jade, and the lights are the right size to hold a
bangle, or other piece of jade, up to it inspect it. The sellers usually
also have a light that has a gemology filter on it, so when you hold up
a piece of jade and look through it, if it's colored you can see odd colors
in it. You have to know which colors show a different color, and know
what you're looking for. These sellers have government certificates for
selling A grade, and also have a policy that if you take the jade to a
testing lab and it's not what they say it is, you get three times your
money back. I use the lights to check every jade piece and filters for
every jade that has translucence. I think the jadeite industry knows it
had a questionable reputation and is working diligently to improve their
image. Jade purchased outside the wholesale market is the jade that is
more likely to be color treated or fake, and those sellers will shuffle
through certificates to find one that is close to what you're looking
at to "prove" it's A grade. April 3
I've been hearing
from those of you lucky enough to get one of the "new" jade
bangles at the preview price. Here is an excerpt from an emai: I picked
up the chalk blue from the Post Office yesterday. I tore open the package
in the parking lot because I couldn't wait to see it. You are right! It
is beautiful. As soon as I got home I put it on and haven't taken it off.
This will be my primary bangle for the summer. Dressy occasions will still
be the round bangle I recently purchased from you (that one is my all
time favorite). The blue color is gorgeous. It was more than I have ever
spent on jade, but well worth it. I am so glad you made this trip to China
and brought home such quality merchandise. This
is a similar jade bangle, click here. I wish I could have bought
more of these, but the seller had only three. Thanks to all of you who
purchased the previews! I have enjoyed "showing them off". Starting
this weekend, the newly list jade bangles will be on jadebanglebracelets.com
April 2
I didn't realize
until I was saving the March blog to the archives that I've been writing
the blog for a year now. When I started, I had a lot to write about jade,
then sometimes it was challenging to decide what to blog about, but I
always wrote something. Isn't it amazing to think that there is always
something to write about jade! The April YYJ newsletter has been sent
out, with two coupons, one for jade bangles and one for anything else.
If you're not receiving the newsletter with your special savings and notices
of sales, be sure to register for an account, or update your account with
the option to receive the newsletter. I get emails about sales all the
time from catalogs I subscribe to, sometimes several times each week.
YYJ newsletter is usually the first of each month, and sometimes there
are private sales, but no more than three each month. YYJ is not a "discount"
jade web site, we offer the best jade at the best prices, and don't artificially
mark up prices so we can have a "sale". A sale is a real sale.
The Calm
Spirit / Ying Yu Jade April newsletter is available online now, click
here. This month features Chinese medicine wellness information for
March regarding balance of body, mind and spirit. There is information
about what kind of jade to wear this month if you wear jade for your health,
and more.
April 1, 2008
contact:calmspirit@calmspirit.net
