Jade: Lots of fakes!

Real Jade Buddha on Auction at Christie's 2010

Jade is what I call a "mysterious" stone.  It comes from mysterious places (like China, or Central America or the Yucatan as found in Mayan temples) and has been used for centuries.  It's beautiful and comes in different colors, but the emerald-green variety is the one I think of when I think of jade.

BUT, there are a lot of other stones being sold as jade, and they're anything including glass, dyed quartz, serpentine, soapstone, and just tons of other natural and manmade stones (even plastic!).  I have a green jade ring in my etsy shop, and I received a lovely "convo" from someone who has the ring as well---she purchased it in a book shop years ago!  And she was told it was real Jade from China.  It's almost impossible to tell if it is in fact Jade or a dyed stone.   It seems like the word "jade" is being used for just about anything that is carved in some sort of Asian piece, which really loses the meaning of the term "jade" regarding the real thing.

Mayan Jade Mask

I bought some "ruby jade" faceted coin beads about 8 years ago from a store in Santa Fe, NM, and they told me it was "white jade" that was dyed red.  In looking up "white jade" I'm not sure, but I think it's some sort of quartz.  The red jade coins are translucent and hard, but is it really jade, or quartz?  It's all VERY confusing!!

I found a great website that is very informative, with pictures and lots of information.  If you are wondering about jade and all the fakes found on ebay and other places, please take a look at this website.  The author is named Molly Kalafut, and I don't know her at all, but I appreciate all her hard work!  Take a look:

http://molly.kalafut.org/jade/fake.html