jade in the green

Prized for centuries by the Chinese, jadeite is being fashioned to suit today's modern clientele IT'S NO SECRET that the Chinese have prized jadeite for centuries. The striking emerald colour of imperial green jadeite has especially enchanted Chinese jewellery connoisseurs, a fascination that continues today. While jadeite is ingrained in Chinese culture, a growing number of jewellery designers are departing from traditionally Asian jadeite jewellery styles and creating fresher, more modern designs that appeal to a younger clientele. Designers are adding gemstones, such as sapphires, for more colour and finding inspiration in art deco designs. Revamped designs are also helping jadeite move from weddings and other formal occasions to daytime wear at the office. Imperial green jadeite stands at the apex of the jadeite colour hierarchy, but this extremely strong polycrystalline gemstone comes in a wide variety of colours, including green, white, lavender, black, red, yellow and orange. 'Emerald green is the most desirable colour and is preferable to apple green,' said Terry Chu, deputy director of Sotheby's Hong Kong. 'Lavender comes second to green. Red, yellow and so on are more playful and trendy.' Tone, translucency and consistency of colour are other important factors. 'You have to look at the purity of colour and whether it's evenly distributed,' Ms Chu said. 'Mottled colour or brown stains can affect the value.' A good piece of jadeite should be as translucent as possible. Typically, the finer the underlying grain in the stone, the more translucent it is. 'Top-end pieces are usually translucent to semi-transparent,' Ms Chu said. Imperial green and lavender jadeite are particular favourites of Samuel Kung, designer and chief executive at Jadeite Collection. He uses the highest quality of both in his unique creations. 'My designs depend on the raw material that I work with,' he said. 'It is too boring to do traditional designs, but jadeite jewellery cannot be completely western style. It has to have some Oriental elements. Maintaining that combination feels really good.' One example is his 18-carat white gold jadeite dragonfly brooch, which flashes with diamonds and has a body and wings made from smooth imperial green jadeite. 'It is very modern, in the art deco style,' Mr Kung said. He prefers a light to a heavy look for his jewellery. 'Jadeite is a heavy material to begin with, so I try to counteract that with my designs.' He hangs asymmetrical slabs of red or orange jadeite on a leather thong or silk cord to create simple pendants. And he recently began dabbling with grey titanium to create trendy yet traditional jadeite jewellery. In contrast, the flamboyant style of Edward Chiu, managing director and designer at Edward Chiu International, is evident in his new line of jadeite floral brooches, called Brooch Affairs. Lavender, yellow, brown, white and black jadeite burst forth in large, dynamic renderings of flowers. 'It is not necessary for them to [be] exactly like flowers. For me, that is too square; I just want the suggestion of a flower,' Mr Chiu said. Dotted with rubies, diamonds or keshi pearls, the free form flowers reflect Mr Chiu's intrinsic preference for open contours and lavish yet understated designs. He eschews harsh geometric lines in favour of graceful curves and a consistency in approach. 'I don't want the form changing too much. I don't like putting round and square shapes together,' he said. 'Squares are too tight and boxed in.' The designer enjoys combining two or three colours of jadeite and working with bicoloured jadeite. In one of his pieces, yellow and white bicoloured jadeite is delicately carved into a butterfly brooch. Designer and owner of Etcetera Edmond Chin is fascinated by the engineering that goes into crafting a piece of jewellery. 'Part of my design style is to show very little metal in order to show off the stone,' he said. 'I like making complicated pieces that are not complicated to wear.' Clasps, metal supports and hinges are cleverly concealed from view, as in his jadeite butterfly brooch. Made with an imperial green jadeite body and colourless jadeite wings speckled with yellow diamonds and green demantoid garnets, the 18-carat white gold setting is all but invisible. Mr Chin is partial to green, colourless, lavender and black jadeite. 'I tend not to use too many colours because otherwise it's hard to match with clothing,' he said. 'I'm also very concerned with how my jewellery works on the body.' Inspired by ancient Chinese art, he uses cabochons, beads and antique carving motifs in his pieces but does not want to be defined by a particular style. He believes every woman is her own best judge of how much jadeite jewellery she can wear. 'They can get away with anything if they know what looks good on them.' When wearing more than one piece of jewellery, Mr Chiu advises women to stick with jadeite of the same quality and colour. 'If it's a bicolour piece, you can pick up either colour to match with another piece,' he said. A jadeite ring and brooch is a good combination. But if one piece of jewellery is especially large, he suggests complementing it with a piece that is much smaller. 'You have to use common sense when wearing different pieces. Don't wear two big pieces,' he said. Mr Kung suggests that women start with a small piece such as a pendant or ring, and consider larger items later, always making sure to match the jadeite colours. Ms Chu said buyers of jadeite should realise that it was classified into types A, B and C. A-type jadeite, which is natural and untreated, is the most desirable and costly. B-type is bleached and polymer-impregnated, and C-type is dyed. B-plus-C refers to jadeite that is bleached, polymer-impregnated and dyed. Stones in these categories sell for a fraction of the price of a comparable piece of A-type jadeite. Lower-quality jadeite is typically treated to remove brown stains and to improve the stone's colour and translucency. But processes such as bleaching can damage jadeite's internal structure, making it friable. 'Nowadays, we see A, B and B-plus-C jadeite. We hardly ever see C-type,' Ms Chu said. She recommended that people bought jadeite from reputable shops and, for more valuable pieces, obtained a testing report from a laboratory to verify that it was A-type. 'It is a good idea for pieces that cost more than $100,000, but basically there is no specific value amount to go by when deciding to obtain a test report. Since a report only costs a couple of hundred dollars, you can request one if you feel it is necessary,' she said.