Big Sur Black Nephrite Jade Bangle - 54.7 mm #2

Bangle Specifications:
Inner Diameter: 54.7 mm
Width: 16.4 mm
Weight: 59.9 grams

Grading Total: 9

Grading Specifics

• Integrity:               9
• Grain/Fiber:          9
• Translucency:        2
• Color impact:       9
• Polish:                   9
• Workmanship:      9

GRADING DEFINITIONS - JADE
Integrity:  Ability to withstand impact. (Fractures, micro-fractures and brittleness)
Grain/Fiber:  Fine crystalline (Jadeite) or fine fiber (nephrite)
Translucency:  Light penetration into material from a light source
Color impact:  Expected color from material (There are different expectations from different jades from around the world and the jade source locations.)
Polish:  Ability to take a polish. Not all items are high polish but the ability to take a high polish shows a certain aspect in quality.
Workmanship:  Consistency of smoothness, edges, thickness and polish.

Grading Scale:

• 7 to 10: High     
• 4 to 6: Medium
• 1 to 3: Low

Big Sur Nephrite Jade History:

There are many stories of the history of diving and gathering nephrite jade from the ocean in Big Sur. It is a magical place both on land and in the ocean. The jade here is unique and closest in color and texture variations can be found in New Zealand. Although the black nephrite from this location is very similar to the black nephrite found in Russia. There are a large variety of colors from dark green to light green, light blue to dark blue and all the mixes in between. Very rarely is there white jade found in Big Sur. The quality of Big Sur jade is also very variable with some being extremely high quality. Finding fracture free nephrite in this locality (due to being right on the fault line and being pounded by ocean storms) is very difficult making larger carvings and bangles that are fracture free almost impossible.

I am adding additional information on the grading of each bangle. The purpose is to help educate all buyers and give people the appropriate information to better understand their purchase, and in the case of “high-end bangles,” their investment. This grading information is my personal attempt to inform others of the qualities of the material on a particular item. There are so many false jades, modified jade and simply inferior jade being passed off to uninformed buyers. I usually only work with high quality, untreated materials, but the materials do vary in quality even within the same stone so this will point out and identify everything about each bangle. When artists work on a piece of jade (in this case, a bangle), they get to personally know everything about the bangle. Many online sellers (including ETSY), are selling bangles made by production methods (CNC or many operators doing only one part of the process at a time), which also means a seller will have no personal knowledge of the item.

** Note: Many items stated to be "Jade" on Etsy and Ebay are not. In many cases, price does not indicate this either so buying an expensive item may be a jade replica like glass. There are many other stones including agate, grossular garnet, serpentine (many forms), aventurine... being sold as jade. To make it worse and more complicated, many jadeite stones are being reconditioned and died to be very attractive so they pass general tests to be real. If you see  very clear bangles, odds are they are agate, glass or something else. If you see very bright colors of red, yellow, purple... most likely not real. I say this as many buyers are being fooled on-line by these practices.