If you wish to
buy any New
Zealand Greenstone Jewellery,
Maori greenstone / jade / pounamu
/ nephrite carvings or pendants
please use the menu on the left to select.
All jade/greenstone/pounamu used for the
carvings you can buy on our site comes from the rivers & mountains on the West
Coast of the South Island.
Jade is a very hard stone. There is a hardness
scale for stone from 1 to 10 -1 being soft e.g. soapstone and 10 being
extremely hard e.g. diamond. Nephrite Jade is rated at just under 8. Although
the stone is hard, it is also very dense and therefore does not absorb
shock very well. A carving will not break with every day use, but may
break if dropped onto a hard surface.
The more you wear your Jade pendant, the
more beautiful it becomes. When the body oils are absorbed into the pendants,
they are then regarded as treasures, inseparable from the owner. The shine
is from the body oils and constant palm and finger caresses. It has been
said, that the oils from the human body add to the stone's lustre.
It is best to keep a Greenstone pendant
in a leather pouch, if not worn, you can add a touch of oil to the pouch
to keep the stone's gloss.
Traditionally, Greenstone pendants were
worn close around the neck, just resting between the collar bones, either
on a waxed plaited cord or leather cord.
For meanings of Maori symbols, please click
here. -
Maori symbols used in Maori bone and Greenstone
carvings
If you wish to buy any New
Zealand Greenstone Jewellery,
Maori greenstone / jade / pounamu
/ nephrite carvings
please use the menu on the left to select.
|