Friend Val who repaired the Pixiu carving below has a geologist friend who is writing a paper on Chinese jade, and this is an excerpt from it. It is not only gemologically interesting, but also indicates how Chinese people think about jade: What I've learned struck me as beautiful and appropriate to how the Chinese think of jade."Jade is a metamorphic stone. It usually is "born" as Serpentine which forms deep beneath the oceanic crust. Over time with the exchange of minerals with water leaching throughetc, and with extreme pressure at the point where two tectonic plates collide it is pushed up to the surface, and during this process ofheat, pressure and exchange of minerals, Serpentine transforms into Jade. Even the hardest Jade is constantly transforming and will become Tiger's Eye someday! (Of course, all this could take millions of years!" Then she goes on to write about a "modern" flat inside Chinese jade bangle she recently purchased from YY: "This bangle seems to be the "between" that which was (serpentine) and that which will be (nephrite) someday. So it is not Nephrite and it is not Serpentine. It is a beautiful stone of transformation with some properties of both" . Val is a true jade lover, and thanks for your input!. September 29

Another addition to "women wearing jade", a jade lover from Alberta, Canada. September 27

Did you ever try to log into your YYJ account and your password didn't work or you had trouble with checkout? Our business is considered a very small business and we don't have the big technology that big companies have for online ordering. But I am required by my merchant card company to have a very high degree of security on this small site, and pay a whopping big charge to have it scanned daily for this security. You might have seen the Security Metrics logo on the shopping cart pages, our proof of high level of security. You also see the "https" in the address bar, the "s" means I pay a hefty fee to host the shopping cart on a secure site. So sometimes when you are logging in or placing your order, the security systems are checking to make sure everything is safe, and you get odd messages or can't log in, or complete your order. The security companies don't understand my complaint that this problem for customers actually causes them to have less confidence when they order, and they think it should make customers feel more safe. Go figure, I guess they are out of touch with consumers. So if this happens to you, clear your cache (cookies) wait 20 minutes and try again. And if you are using an Apple computer and/or Safari browser, unfortunately Safari has not kept up with some of the security technology of the real world, and some of the options don't even show up. I installed Firefox on my MacBook pro to resolve those kinds of issues when I shop online, and you can, too, if you experience checkout problems when you use Safari. I apologize, but I really don't think these people who deal with security ever go shopping online and "get it"! September 25

Women wearing their jade bangles photos trickling in, click here. September 21 more added Sept 23

Over the years some customers have asked to see photos of women wearing their pretty jade bangle bracelets. They like to see how they wear them, what they wear them with, and what kind of jade bangles other women buy. In other words, it's our JAD (jade acquisition disorder) that makes us love to look at jade! So I'm going to make a page of women wearing their jade and hope you will contribute a photo. Please make the photo a manageble size, around 600x400 size, and include your outfit, better yet include all of you, but if you don't want to show your face or "other body parts" that's OK, but we want to see what you are wearing your jade with (your outfit). Please submit during this week, to my yahoo mail which is jade44217 @ yahoo.com AND I'll send you a coupon for $10 to use this week. Let's get those photos! September 19

Thanks for all your kind comments about getting a good piece of jade and a good deal on Ying Yu Jade. I sell a few items on eBay, including the jade ben wa balls and jade eggs, and a few jadeite bangle bracelets. But they are not a "good deal" on eBay because price are higher because I have to pay insertion fees, final value fees and deal with all the (I'm trying to think of a nice word and can't) stupid stuff on ebay, like using their message service to communicate, and only buyers can leave negative feedback while sellers can be terribly abused. When it comes to jade, there's a lot of sellers on ebay who are using my photos, because they look good and jade is difficult to photograph, so you certainly aren't going to get the bangle in the photo. And since ebay buyers are always asking if the jade is real, I'm guessing they have purchased jade that is not maybe even "jade". I don't like to be associated with eBay, but it gets people to visit my web site. I don't like to be associated with those sellers. And did you know if you buy jadeite from outside the USA that it can be confiscated in customs? Since the Lantos law it's illegal to bring any jadeite which originates in Burma/Mayanmar into the USA or Canada. Chinese sellers say "no problem" and write "stone" for customs inspection, but it's a problem for you if it does get inspected by an inspector who knows what they are looking at. All of our jadete has been in USA since 2008, so it's safe, and you WILL get what you pay for!
September 18

I asked the customer who wanted to sample a low price and low quality jade bangle for her first purchase why she didn't simply buy a "good" jade, not a clearance jade, because Chinese people usually believe jade with cracks is bad luck. She gave me some very interesting feedback. She said that many jade sellers "take" photos of jade items are on the internet, that belong to someone else, and show those photos as the photo of what they are selling, then the customer gets the "real thing" and it's not what the photo was. A few years ago I did a search for jade bangles and found a web site with all my jade bangles on it! A seller had "stolen" my photos and used to them to sell "whatever" he was selling. From that time on, I put Ying Yu Jade or JadeBangleBracelets text on all our photos, and most of the time the photos are taken on the same white silk fabric background to make them unique to our web sites. If you saw a jade bangle, even if our text had been removed, and it had the same white silk and looked like jade sold on this web site, you would know that you certainly weren't going to get a YYJ jade on another web site! It really distresses me that I get so much feedback from new/potential customers who are very cautious because they have been deceived by other jade sellers. Selling jade used to be a very honorable profession. My Chinese jade teacher told me to always be honest, always be fair and my business and life would be good. But if I was deceitful in the jade business, great bad luck would come my way, and stay. That the honorable profession of selling jade has become the deceitful business of today is heart breaking. September 15

Here's an excerpt from an email received today: "Kathleen; I just received my absolutely gorgeous Jade bracelet and can't believe how much more beautiful it is in the real!! It does feel so good, and slips on perfectly! I am so glad to have selected this piece and absolutely just loveit! It is a comfortable feel, and the colors are beautiful! I just can't get over how lovely it is and how good it feels! Thank you every so much." There's nothing like good jade to make you feel good, for your body, mind and spirit. Sometimes new customers who want to "sample" YYJ with an inexpeinsive jade bangle for a first purchase, choose clearance jade or the lowest price in their size. On YYJ and JBB, you really do get what you pay for. The customer who wrote the email purchase a soft lavender "lao pit" old mine jadeite bangle for $1000. I have some customers who who are looking for best quality high-end jade and tell me their price range and the size they want, and I choose something from the inventory, which is my "stash" of jade bangles I hoard, and are so pleased with their purchase they have no need to buy another jade bangle for a long time, or ever again! A wonderful quality jade bangle feels so good, you can wear it every day, you exchange qi energy with it, and you nver want to take it off. September 14

A friend who makes jewelry and has great interest in jade and gemology recently told me about an "ancient jade pixiu" carving her friend had, and broke. She thought it was too nice to throw out, so decided to fix it. As she started working on it, she discovered it was "fake" antique. It is green Chinese jade that wasn't polished, then dipped in brown wax to make it look old. We discussed removing the brown wax or leaving it for accent, and decided to leave most of it. One of the wings was too damaged to repair, so she re-worked it. She did a great job giving old pixiu a new look. Pixiu is a lucky Chinese mythological animal, and this little pixiu certainly was lucky to get fixed up by Val.

September 13

The jade bead bracelet I wore yesterday felt wonderful on my achy wrist, and I decided that instead of wearing a jade bangle bracelet on my wrist, I'm going to wear the jade beads. I cannot give up wearing the everyday jade bangle on my left wrist, and don't want to wear two jade bangles one on each wrist. Several blog readers wrote that they also wear their regular jade bangle on their preferred wrist and notice that their other wrist doesn't feel as healthy, so decided to wear beads on the other wrist. Two days of these beads is already making a difference. September 12

My heart is very heavy today remember the tragic terrorist attack 10 years ago. I needed comfort to wear for the day and put on my Guan Yin bead mala bracelet. Then I made it the Daily Special. Guan Yin is the Buddha of peace and compassion and I can say a prayer on each bead while I feel the comfort of Guan Yin and the jade beads. And the qi energy feels wonderful on my wrist. Wishing you all a day of peace and comfort, we all suffer loss when there is tragedy. September 11

The classic shape of a jade bangle bracelet for women is rounded, and I love the traditional shape because of the distribution of jade: you can have a slender jade bangle but because of the rounded shape there is a good amount of jade feel substantial and make the jade look very attractive. The men's style of jade bangle was often flat inside D shape and more of a "cuff" style. After the Chinese dynasty eras, jade carvers started making women's jade bangles in the flat D shape because they were less "clunky" and without all the "roundness" would fit closer to the wrist, and "modern" women were more active so it was a better alternative. And I am an active woman, so yesterday the pretty vintage rounded jade bangle came off, and a D shape flat inside one went on. It's very similar to the one I'm still wearing on my left wrist, as the coloring and energy feel good to me. Women often ask if it's OK to wear a jade bangle on each arm, and there is no reason why not. Next blog will update how I'm doing with my "second new jade bangle". September 9

It feels strange wearing a jade bangle on my right wrist, but sleeping with it on helps my body get more familiar with it, and more comfort. But I've always been reluctant to wear the more expensive jade bangles and this one had a $6000 price tag on it. I live in this body only once, and why not wear the best jade. I remember buying these classic round good green color bangles in the year 2000. It was my third trip to China and my first trip after deciding I wanted to sell jade. I was spending almost two weeks in the Beijing/Tianjin area to learn more qigong, Chinese medicine and taiji. I didn't know very much about jade, except that I liked it a lot. I was spending a few days with a friend in Tianjin and was having breakfast in the Hyatt Hotel when my friend's traditional old father called me and told me to meet him at a market right away. He showed me all these old art galleries, which was his main interest, and then took me into a shop in a decrepit alley where a toothless old Chinese couple had these round jadeite bangles that they wanted to sell for American dollars, USD highly valued in China at that time. There were 8, a lucky number, and I was thrilled to get them. It wasn't until I really learned about jade that I knew how good they were. "Old Father" was one of the educated professors that was tortured during the Mao Cultural Revolution, and the couple were friends of his who were also prosecuted, jailed and tortured during that time, but didn't have the luck "Old Father" had getting his house and property back as China modernized. I gave them all the American dollars I had with me for the jade bangles. They were all a little too big for me, but now on my right wrist, one is a good size and I am happy to wear this fine grain "lao pit" old Qing dynasty jadeite bangle not only for the best quality of jade, but also for the history that it was worn by the women in the family in pre-modern times in China. Maybe that's where the wild dreams I had last night came from! September 8

For 13 years I have worn my jade bangle on my left, non-dominant wrist, and my best size is 51-53mm. I use my left hand less, and like my jade close to my heart, on my heart meridian for health and wellness. But I've developed carpal tunnel pain and arthritis in my right hand and wrist. Maybe my left was spared from wearing the jade bangle on the left? So I'm going to make a major change and wear my jade bangle on my right wrist now, to see if the health of the hand and wrist improve. But I need a larger bangle size on my right, at least 54mm, and can wear up to 56mm. So I get to pick out a new jade bangle for myself! I've been wearing the jade bangle in the photo below since May, the white yin to keep me cool during the hot summer, with imperial green yang veins for energy. I actually need to do a search on my web site to see what I have in those sizes! Then maybe look through my inventory to see what else I have. I plan to start with TI-1208 . I love the appearance and the yang energy, hope it helps my old wrist feel better! September 7

Summer is over, back to work and school and "regular life" after our hot, unusual weather summer. Of course you realize this means that the holidays will be here before you know it. This is a good time to watch the daily specials and when you see a jade item on sale that would make a good gift, buy it and put it aside and then when you need your holiday gifts, you will have a wonderful collection. We try to put one inexpensive special on each week, small items that make low cost and unique gifts. Plan ahead for peace of mind later. September 4

A customer who purchased a black/charcoal jadeite bangle asked for information about the energy of this kind of jade. They are all natural color, and old mine jadeite, coming from the deepest part of the mines. The color itself is "yang", the element is earth, and its basic energy is for protection and clearing negative energy. It's a good kind of jade to wear when you travel, because it not only protects physically, but also mentally and spiritually. It protects like a shield against negativity other people project, and is helpful during times of world crisis when one tries to avoid being swept up in negative mass consciousness. Meditating with black/charcoal jade can initiate deep inner voyages to return to a state of higher consciousness. It also helps one honestly assess where one's limitations lie, such as immaturity, behavior patterns, ego expression to help identify these and clear and remedy those traits while accepting your "shadow" self. An affirmation to use with black jade: "I am surrounded by divine protection and free from negative attachments". Black jade-not only beautiful, but a very strong energy jade stone to wear and use. September 2

The Calm Spirit / Ying Yu Jade complete September newsletter is available online now, click here. This month features Chinese medicine wellness information for September 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. September 1

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