working with jade

My mom got me some jade rounds in China a few years ago.  I have most of mine strung as a bracelet on a simple stretchy cord.  I haven't wanted to part with the remaining few.  But I finally got them out again a few months ago and found some Czech glass and ceramic buttons that I wanted to pair them with to make a couple bracelets.  I ended up making one of them with the intention that it would be a birthday present from my mom for my grandma.  It seems like my mom will be keeping it for herself...and I'm not sure what my grandma is going to get haha, but here's the first one.

I made the second one, which is slightly longer, at the same time and listed it on Etsy last night.  It's available here.

This one doesn't have any strong copper/bronze colored components like this first one does, but it is still awesome.  It took me a long time to find the jade chips that I wanted and decide what Czech glass I wanted to pair with it.  A lot of the Czech glass is from Shannon (beadsandbabble).  The primary mix that I used is right here.  I added the ceramic buttons from Lisa (LisaPetersArt) on a whim at the last minute.  I cannot believe that I forgot they were in my stash.  The color coordinates perfectly.  I have one more left over, too.

I still had a lot of jade chips when I'd finished these pieces so I made a lighter weight jade piece with seed bead accents that I'll have up soon, too.  It's a similar style to to this little coral piece.