What are the common varieties of jade and what are their characteristics?

Jadeite, a fibrous aggregate of pyroxene minerals mainly composed of jadeite minerals, is a type of jade. Because of its fine texture, exquisite color and certain benefits to the human body, jade is made into various kinds of jade jewelry. But do you know what varieties of jade are common on the market? What are their characteristics? Knowing these will help you choose jade jewelry. Next, let’s go and take a look together.

Glass Jade

Glass jade looks like glass and is as transparent as glass, with a fine structure and uniform grain size, giving people a feeling of icy purity, exquisiteness, and dripping emerald water. It is characterized by fluorescence that can be seen with the naked eye and a crisp sound when knocked. Glass jade is the best type of jade, but its quantity is small, so it is extremely precious.

Ice Jade

If glass-type jade is the "emperor" among jades, then ice-type jade is the "noble" among jades. Ice jade is also known as "seed jade". It has excellent water content and is colorless. It has a good outer gloss and a texture similar to glass jade. It has a slightly lower transparency and often contains "white cotton" in the form of dots or small pieces. Ice jade is three parts warm and seven parts cold, and is praised by the industry as "hand-tin washes away all the glitz and shows calmness", which is very suitable for mature women to wear.

Glutinous

Glutinous jade refers to jade with fine texture and coarse and loose crystals. It is the "potential stock for the common people" among jades. It can be consumed by ordinary people and also has room for appreciation and collection value. The glutinous jade can be further divided into glutinous ice jade and glutinous rice jade. The glutinous ice type refers to a type that is slightly more turbid than the ice type, just like ice with slightly more impurities. Some scholars also classify it as ice type. The transparency of glutinous rice jade is lower, and there are often many tiny impurities scattered inside the jade, which gives people the feeling that it is not only turbid but also not pure enough.

Bean seeds

Bean-type jade is a common type of jade. As its name suggests, the crystal grains of bean-type jade are large and mostly short columnar, arranged like beans inside the jade. The crystal interface can be clearly seen with the naked eye. Due to its rough grains, the gloss and transparency of bean-type jade are not as good as other varieties of jade. In the industry, bean-type jade is called "water-dry", which belongs to the medium and low-grade variety and the price is not high.

In fact, there are many varieties of jade. There are dozens of common varieties of jade, each with its own characteristics. Today’s introduction ends here. We will continue to introduce the remaining varieties in the next issue.

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