Augusten Burroughs Necklaces

Tantalum and jadeite bracelet and necklace combination; rarer than rare. The 11" long "Planetary Bodies" bracelet features 8 natural and untreated jadeite jade beads from Guatemala ...

This 21.5" necklace is composed of highly translucent and exceedingly rare natural and untreated deep emerald-green jadeite jade beads from Guatemala. The vast majority of the worl...

Tantalum is the rarest metal on earth -not counting lab-created metals that exist for fractions of a minute, metals that are liquid at room temperature, or radioactive. Tantalum's bluish-grey-silver color is unique among metals. It is a very hard metal that is biologically inert, so it won't cause skin irritation. Tantalum jewelry is rarely encountered. And here, Tantalum wire has been combined with highly translucent bluish-grey-silver jadeite jade beads to create a one-of-a-kind 21 ¾" necklace. The rarest metal and beads hand-carved from one of the rarest gems, sharing such a similar tone. The dense, satisfyingly weighty Tantalum has a muted luster, while the jadeite has a complimentary high-gloss polish. There are 19 natural and untreated jadeite beads...

This is a unique handmade necklace featuring 41 translucent high-polish pine-green nephrite jade beads joined to a hand-fabricated, hand-textured heavy silver chain. The juxtaposition between the gleaming, glossy natural and untreated nephrite jade beads against the rugged, hammered and scarred chunky silver chain is great. The rich green beads are strung on vivid deep purple silk with modified a barrel-knot between each bead. I don't design and fabricate many pieces of jewelry but this is one of my creations. The necklace measures just under 37" in length and can be worn as a single strand or doubled. I sourced the nephrite beads from the mining company in Canda who extracted them from the earth. They are individually hand-carved and hand-polished and as a result, there are tiny irregularities in their shapes. My non-standard methods of fabrication result in a silver chain that is uniquely, stylishly crude. Links appear partially soldered (they're fully soldered), irregular in size and shape, nicked, scarred, hammered, and finally hand-finished with a polished sapphire cabochon. Some of the links appear to have a yellow tint in areas: this is gold, absorbed by the silver during the soldering process. In contrast, the pristine jade beads have strung old-school style (not just a single overhand knot) with a slightly more prominent knot that shows off the vivid purple sink...

This contemporary necklace of 59 10mm to 10.5mm nephrite jade beads is a contemporary classic. This is not the unappealing "spinach green" so commonly seen in mall-quality nephrite jade necklaces from the 1970s. These nephrite beads display a glossy high polish, excellent translucency, and an even tone. The coloring is similar to a Norway Spruce...

This jade, diamond, and quartz pendant is a study in translucency. The 25.5mm x 17.5mm oval natural quartz cabochon at the top is semi-transparent and glows like partially melted ice...

Each natural and untreated jadeite bead of this necklace was hand-carved. These beads were sourced from a small family business in Myanmar. They...

Australian chrysoprase is the rarest and most valuable form of chalcedony, which is a form of quartz. I purchased these fine, natural Australian...

If you could wear a necklace made out of small, perfectly spherical bubbles of light, it would probably look like this. Comprised of 120 glassy, semitransparent near-colorless jadeit...

These jade beads are indescribably luminous. As a second-generation collector of jade, I have been around the stone my entire life and yet when I saw these beads I was in awe, for they possess a quality so rare it is almost never seen in jade: chatoyancy. You've seen chatoyancy in moonstone or chrysoberyl cat's eye: it's the optical effect of light sliding around just below the surface of the stone. Most people have never even seen jade that displays such an un-earthly glow. The necklace seems to be literally alive with light. "Jade" is one name for two stones: jadeite and nephrite. The finest jadeite comes from Myanmar (formerly Burma) and is the most valuable and prized variety of jade. The best nephrite? Well, that depends. For white nephrite: China; for black nephrite: Wyoming. But for green nephrite that rivals the color and quality of the best imperial jadeite from Myanmar, it is my opinion (shared by many other gemologists) that only jade...

"Rare" is a term I try to avoid because it has joined the pantheon of Words Stripped of Their Meaning Due to the Corrosive Effects of Overuse (see also: delicious, gourmet, amazing, genuine, authentic). But sometimes the old, worn-out word is best. All that to say: this exceedingly *rare* 24" necklace/bracelet is composed of 140 lab-certified natural and untreated kosmochlor-jadeite jade beads...