June 2007 Blog

Of course we had to go to Nogales, Mexico, for some shopping. I wanted to buy a Oaxaca painted armadillo and some Mexican silver earrings. We didn't enjoy being in Nogales, the prices are terribly inflated but they expect you to bargain with them. After walking through one shopping street, we decided to find a larger shop where we could buy both items and maybe bargain for a good price. We chose two Oaxaca painted armadillos, a painted lizard and silver and turquoise earrings for a friend, and started bargaining for a price. That's when I saw several jade pendants in one of the cases, and asked about them. The seller knew how to describe jade, and these pieces were jadeite, and even compared them to my jade bangle, as being a nice quality. He was the only person in Mexico who commented on my jade bangle, and he really was quite knowledgeable. Which was a surprise. I have sold jade all over the world, but have not sold any to a customer in Mexico. That was the end of the shopping. We spent the next couple days at the resort, and went to an old Tucson style steakhouse for our anniversary dinner, and agreed their prime rib was the best we ate. I thought I might get in some shopping at the Tucson airport, but it's one of the worst airports I've been in, a real disgrace to Tucson. And we didn't have enough time during the plane change in Las Vegas, so back home on Southwest Airlines, which we really like, with enough unspent credit on the card to buy that refrigerator and stove we need....after hurricane season. June 28, 2007

We were in Las Vegas for two days, then went to Laughlin for a day. Since the shopping in LV wasn't very good, I consoled myself with thoughts of shopping in the Laughlin casinos. Laughlin is much more quiet than Las Vegas. There is a row of casinos right on the Colorado River across from Bullhead City, AZ. There's lots of recreational activity in the river, which is interesting. The first thing I noticed when we arrived in Laughlin was a big outlet mall across the street from the casinos, so it was no surprise that there was no good shopping in the casinos! The last time we were in Laughlin, I bought several very nice silver and turquoise pieces of Native American jewelry. But there was no good shopping in the casinos anymore. The following day we drove to Tucson, AZ. We stayed in a resort there, and did some sightseeing, but no shopping. However, we went to Nogales Mexico for shopping, where I was surprised to find jade! That's for tomorrow. June 28, 2007

I'm not the only one disappointed that there wasn't any good pawn shop shopping in Las Vegas, as I've had several feedbacks about yesterday's blog. I didn't go to any pawn shops because I was hoping to find jade or Asian "treasures" pawned by the Hawaiian and Asian people that the California Casino caters to. And this was really a major disappointment for me because I am not a gambler and was looking forward to shopping while my husband played in the casinos. So it was a big deal because I had money to spend! We took one of the new double decker buses to the Strip, and went through some of the casinos. My favorite is the Venetian, it is really classy. There were mostly Asian dealers and I saw more women dealers wearing jade bangles there than anywhere else. But I couldn't get a good look at them unless I played, and I don't play. Room rates at the Venetian start at about $300 per night. It has the best shopping of all the casinos we went to. There's a restaurant called the Tao that is lined with huge carved Buddha's and Guan Yin statues, and fabulous atmosphere but we weren't there during the dinner hours so we didn't eat. I bought a Tao tank top and some "meditation oil" in the attached shop. The main mall has a lot of high end shops in it, and my favorite was the Mikimoto pearl store. My love for pearls is a close runner up to my love for jade. I own a long strand of Mikimoto pearls that I used to wear when I "worked", but don't wear much now. I saw some strung with diamond spacers, and they were fabulous. I am thinking about getting my long strand restrung like that and will have enough left over for a bracelet with some more diamond spacers, and won't THAT look great with jade! By the way, most of the feedbacks mentions that you also make a point of looking at wrists, checking for jade bangles! Great pastime. June 26, 2007

I received two emails asking about how my shopping in the downtown Las Vegas pawn shops turned out. They are gone! There is not one pawn shop in the downtown Fremont Street area. In fact, downtown Las Vegas looks very run down and shabby. The Lady Luck casino is closed down, and there is very little "good shopping" on Fremont Street. There was a mini-mall area that had a lot of interesting shops and outdoor entertainment, and it's deserted. It was very disappointing. We stayed in the Golden Nugget Casino hotel, which was very nice. The rooms were clean, updated and a large size. The buffet in the GN was really, really good compared to most of the other food downtown. The California Casino still caters to Hawaiian visitors, and I saw some visitors and dealers wearing jade bangle bracelets, but not many. I am always looking at women's wrists! June 25, 2007

I received an email from Charles Li, my Chinese doctor friend in Beijing, who wrote that he is reminding his women patients to wear their jade bangles on their left wrist, which is closer to the heart. Jade helps to balance the body, and keep the heart and circulation healthy. I mentioned this to one of my friends who responded that perhaps wearing a watch on the left wrist is not good for the heart or health because of the battery energy. Good point. If you wear jade for health as well as for its beauty, you should make the most of its qi. Today's Special is a summer white jadeite bangle bracelet with cooling hues of soft lavender and green, and a beautiful "flower" patterning, which means you can really see the jade stone because it's translucent and the light really shows it off. I was "feeling" my inventory for a good summertime jade bangle, and this one seemed perfect. June 25

There's a mini-mall in Chinatown, with several shops, a bakery, a restaurant, and a shop that sells unique Chinese statues, carvings, and jade. I bought a jade dragon turtle from her on my last visit. She had the largest selection of jade bangles I have seen from a Chinatown seller, about 50 of them. But they were on a glass shelf in a display case, not in boxes. She had interesting carved jade bangles but when I looked at them, they were almost all chipped, scratched and some even cracked from not being carefully packed. When I commented on their poor condition she told me that's just how jade is. They were the condition that I sell in clearance, and they were priced starting at $500 and up to $8000. I asked her where she got her jade bangles, and she told me that Chinese people who went to China brought them back and sold them to her. She didn't have them tested, and sold them all as "natural jadeite". Since I don't gamble, I had planned to buy one of her bangles on this trip, but she was very pushy and made me so uncomfortable about looking at them that I walked out of the shop. My husband, who was waiting outside, was surprised that I was "done" so quickly, and I told him she made me so nervous I didn't enjoy looking. He laughed and said "since when have you ever been intimidated by Chinese people selling jade"! Well, I didn't like the high pressure and all the "stories" about being best quality jadeite, and that cracks, chips, scratches on $1000 bangles were acceptable. AND she told me that my "good" bangle I was wearing was probably fake jade! I hope I am never intimidating to my customers. By shopping online, you can look at all the bangles, ask questions, and not feel "pushed" into buying something. Although you can't touch the "real thing", I think the photos are accurate, as I check them in three monitors. I hope you have a pleasant experience shopping on the Ying Yu Jade website! June 22, 2007

Las Vegas has an interesting China Town, two full blocks with a lot of peripheral shops, just of the Strip. One of my favorite shops is a high-end jade jewelry store, so expensive that you have to buzz to enter and there are security guards inside. They had the most extensive collection of real, genuine imperial jadeite and imperial green jadeite jewelry set with diamonds, platinum, high karat gold that I have seen in the USA. And of course the prices start in the thousands of dollars. I wrote "had" because the shop is there, but that jade is gone. I can remember on my first trip to China, the tour guide took us to a high end government jadeite store that sold only the imperial green jadeite, and much of it was set with diamonds and 18-22k gold. I didn't know anything about jade at that time, except that I want it, and a lot of it. On the plane trip over, I saw an imperial green jade bangle on a woman's wrist, and I decided I wouldn't go home until I had one like it. But I was astounded by the prices, and wondered why I saw the "same thing" on HSN at much lower prices. I didn't buy anything there, but I later bought an imperial green color bangle at another shop on our China tour. I later learned it was dyed quartz, not jadeite or jade. But I was thrilled to buy it for a "cheap price", thrilled to wear it home, and even today I am very happy to wear it. It looks like the "real thing", and when I wear it with my 24k bangle, looks extremely "pricey". And truly, no one knows the difference, that it isn't jade. One of the feedbacks I received expressed surprise that I owned dyed, or B quality jade, and I do. And I wear it. Because it looks nice and I like it. But back to Las Vegas, I was sorry to see that the imperial jade shop was gone, because it is very rare to find that quality here in the USA. But my first thought when I went in that store the first time was "I wonder who buys this" because it is very expensive. But truly glorious. Tomorrow:another jade shop and "the jade lady". June 21, 2007

Here's an update from Sue B about giving jade a water bath:
Most cheerful greetings..just a note from the dry country of the Sierra Foothills. My bathing of the bangles is usually brief, a warm or cool sinkful of water depending on the weather. There has been some discussion, I forget where, about too much immersion depleting the energy of a jade and Kathleen's jades have such fine energy I don't want to risk weakening their character, energetically speaking. Soooo....I just bathe them and wipe them off with a soft towel, most days.Just an FYI about jade bathing. Best regards..SueB.GG June 20, 2007

We spent 7 days this month in the desert southwest, which is beautiful, wild, endlessly fascinating. The third day when we were driving to Laughlin, I was playing with my jade bangle and noticed that it looked really dull, and tried to polish it with a little candle wax, but it seemed to have lost its glow. I don't think jade likes to be hot and dry. My friend Sue B has written to me about keeping her jades in bowls of water, and she's a gemologist so I figured she knew what she was doing, but I didn't really "get it" until we had been in the hot, dry desert a few days. I had taken four jade bangles with me, just couldn't leave them behind, and they all looked dull and sorry, so I put them all in a cool bath in the hotel ice buckets (no ice) for the rest of our stay. And they looked a lot better. When we moved from Ohio to central Florida, and all of my jade inventory was on the lanai waiting to get put away, it was a great surprise to see how much more green and bright and glowing it looked. Of course, it was all the humidity of Florida, plus the indirect filtered daylight. So, if you live in a dry area, keep your jade cool and moist. The sellers in the jade market always keep a glass of water in their jade cases so the jade has a moist environment and stays "healthy". As a summer reminder, never let your jade set in the sun, because the sun is a heat treatment, as heat is a method to color enhance jade and jadeite.
And wear your jade-don't leave it in a drawer! June 19, 2007

One of my e-friends, KM, commented that she wanted to purchase a "brighter" jade bangle. She noted that some of the gray hues in the green kept the green from looking more "green" and that she saw some white jade bangles on women that were "brighter", compared to the gray hues in hers. I want to comment on this, because the information can be helpful when you choose jade bangles. I sell only all-natural, no color enhanced jade (except for trade ins, or if stated it's color enhanced). Natural color jadeite isn't always pretty! That's the reason for color enhancing. The more natural green in the jadeite, the higher the price will be. And even when there is a good natural green, the other colors around it aren't bright because that's the way the natural color is. So what happens, to make the jade look better, the jadeite is first bleached to remove the "undesirable" gray hues, and make it more translucent, and then polymer color is added, or it is dyed. So, if you see a white jadeite bangle that is very white, but under $1000, it's probably been washed with bleach. This is often sold as "A" because color hasn't been added, or sometimes called "A-B". The bleaching makes the jadeite less hard, more fragile, so it can be tested to tell if it's been bleached. There's nothing wrong with getting bleached jade, although you might want to know so you can be more careful with it. Bleaching really makes color in an average piece of jadeite look brighter. But a completely natural color white-white or bright green is quite expensive, so you will pay more for it. That's part of what I take into consideration when I determine price for the jadeite bangles: the color, the translucency, the brightness, the jade stone appearance, the "chime". When I shop for jade, I find the color enhanced jade very attractive, and buy a few for myself. By the way, the color enhanced is often more expensive than the natural because there is more work time spent enhancing it. BUT...that's not what I sell. My web site started with the www.calmspirit.net web site which focuses on counseling and advice, Chinese wellness, herbs, etc., and I wanted to have a unique jade business selling the natural jade and jadeite for health and balance of body, mind and spirit.. I have considered selling B grade, because I'd sell a lot more and have a more profitable business. Customers are always asking for "something different", and getting B quality to sell would give me that "something different" to sell. Comments? Click on the feedback button, let me know your thoughts/ideas. June 16, 2007

I listed some of the "new" jadeite bangles today. I get requests for "new and different" jade bangles all the time, but natural, untreated jade is various shades and patterns of green, with white, some light lavender or "hong". You would need to look at dyed jade for the really bright and different colors. I'm always excited when I get green jade with blue hues because that's really rare and expensive. I have some brighter colors in the trade in/estate section, because I don't test those for natural coloring, and they are "as is". I test them for jade stone, and most of the color is obvious, but I don't test for natural coloring. If you get a bright jade that is natural in the trade in section, then you have made a really good buy! Although it's difficult to tell from the photos, all of the jade bangles are slightly different, with colors, patterns, inclusions. And of course, it's all beautiful. June 14, 2007

I'm back! We had one of the best vacations ever! I'm getting caught up with orders and replacing items that have sold while we were gone. I'm going to write about "jade watching" and jade shopping in Las Vegas as soon as I get a chance. June 13, 2007

I ordered several items from a web site on May 24, and still haven't had confirmation of shipping from them. No response from my email, either. There are many e-commerce stores to shop from, and shopping online can be very impersonal (you can do it in your pajamas at midnight!) I try to stand out from other online jade shopping by giving you fast shipping and good, friendly customer service. That being said, we're taking a one week vacation and traveling starting tomorrow so your orders will be shipped when we return, June 12. I'll check emails daily where I have internet access. Thanks for shopping with me, and for your patience this week if you place an order. I appreciate my customers! There's a $15 coupon on orders of $150+ until June 12, use coupon code DISC15 when you order. I've already had a customer use it on a $50 order, if you use it for less than $150 it will be adjusted when I process your order. "See you" next week! June 4, 2007

I decided to reduce the shipping costs approximately to what they were before the postal increase. I raised the prices a little on some of the heavier items to cover the shipping costs. It costs less to mail a $200 bangle than it does to mail 8 jade rollers, which are the same price. And I raised the prices $2 on some small items, like ben wa balls, but offer free shipping because they are 2 ounces and don't need the shipping costs that are standard for items of that price. I'll wait to see if the shipping charges also pay for most of the international shipping. I can ship international first class with insurance for just a little more than US shipping. I had been using the Global Priority for international but it doesn't get there any faster, and is quite a bit more costly. But items more than $200 will incur at least $10 more shipping charge to international destinations because I'll use EMS so I can track like I can track domestically. I hope this works out, please let me know if you have any suggestions or feedback.
June 3, 2007

Everything looks better with jade. When I was walking through Walmart from the groceries to the hardware, I saw a White Stag dress display, very inexpensive at $14, in white, tan and black. They were simple cotton shirtwaist dresses, short sleeves, no collar. My husband commented that it was very cheap looking. The next day, I wore it with my jade bangle and the "year of the pig" simple jade necklace, black canvas espadrille shoes, and he thought it was "too dressy" to wear to the store, and where was I REALLY going! Just a little jade can really make a simple outfit, jeans and a tee shirt, shorts and a tank, look special. Jade is classy, and timeless. June 2, 2007

The Calm Spirit / Ying Yu Jade June newsletter is available online now, click here. This month features Chinese medicine wellness information for June 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.

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