Guatemalan Olmec Blue Jadeite Bangle - 51.5mm

Bangle Specifications:
Inner Diameter: 51.5 mm
Width: 14.3 mm
Weight: 73.7 grams

Grading Total: 9

Grading Specifics

• Integrity:               9
• Grain/Fiber:         9
• Translucency:      9
• Color impact:       8
• 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

OLMEC BLUE JADEITE HISTORY:
Scholars searched for half a century to find the prized blue jadeite of the Olmecs and Mayan’s. It was re-discovered in 2002 after the local hurricane devastated the local forests and people which exposed the jadeite veins in 1998. This jadeite material rivals the best from Myanmar, formerly Burma. The Olmecs of the pre-Columbian era considered this jade more valuable than gold. It is believed that the Olmecs believed that the blue jade is most prized and the kings and their families were always buried with it for acceptance into the next life.

BACKGROUND:
Blue jadeite bangles are hard to come by. Search everywhere and you'll see how infrequent these are available. This top quality jadeite is a recent find in Guatemala and top grade is being compared to top grade Burmese. Fracture free similar bangles are being sold for up to $15,000. This material is a little different that other top quality blue jadeite mentioned above as it has white jadeite inclusions looking like "Snow". Some call this "Blizzard" or "Storm".

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.