Hi, my name is Samantha. We’re going to be talking about jade VS aventurine. What’s the difference between jade and aventurine?
What Is Aventurine?
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To start, we’re going to talk about aventurine. Aventurine is a type of silicate. Silicate is made up of the elements silica and oxygen. Aventurine is a type of quartz in this family that gets its nice green color from a mineral called fuchsite, which is a type of mica. Aventurine is found worldwide, but the greatest deposit is typically found in India.
What Is Jade?
Next, we’re going to be talking about jade. There are two different kinds of jade, nephrite jade, and jadeite.
Jadeite is a much more expensive stone. Typically if you’ve been sold something as jadeite, unless you’ve pried a much higher price tag on it, it’s not actually jadeite.
So the main difference between nephrite and jadeite is the chemical composition. They are both forms of silicate, just like aventurine is. Except their chemical composition differs in that silicate.
Nephrite is a mixture of calcium and magnesium, whereas jadeite is a mixture of sodium and aluminum in this combination.
Nephrite can be found all over the world, but the main deposit is in china. There are also greater deposits in bc and Canada, Alaska, and Poland.
Aventurine vs. Jade
1) Color Difference
The first thing we’re going to talk about is the color difference. Aventurine is always going to be kind of more into a pale lighter green color. In contrast, high-quality nephrite jades will always be nice dark rich color. Sometimes lower qualities can be a lemony green, but generally, it’s a richer green. You’re going to get dark black veins that sometimes go throughout.
When you’re looking at raw pieces, and typically they look very similar. When they’re in the raw state, the main difference you’ll be looking at is the color inside.
If you take a bright light, like the light on your cell phone, and you shine it through aventurine, you’re going to see a very consistent color, and maybe some of those sparkles have a grainy texture on the inside.
Whereas you’re going to get that lemony color, and you’re going to see all nice little spots and specks and little squiggles of darker colors throughout.
2) Sparkles
Another easy way to tell the difference, particularly with aventurine, is that it actually sparkles, whether raw or polished. Because of that lovely fuchsia mica that I mentioned earlier, it has some sparkle. On polished pieces , the sparkle can be harder to see, but if you look up closer, you get a loop. What you’re going to see is like a grain. So tiny little speckles and sparkles throughout the inside of the stone.
One of the other things you might see in aventurine that you’re not necessarily going to see in jade or jadeite is bands of like white chunkies. Because aventurine is still more form of quartz than nephrite, you’re going to see possibly chunks of quartz mixed in with it.
3) Price
The last thing we’re going to talk about is price. Most times, people are looking for jade, and that’s what they’re trying to purchase. When you purchase jade, really be watching your price, this can help determine what you’re getting.
If it’s quite cheap, you’re probably getting adventuring, you might be getting something else called serpentine.
Conclusion On Jade Vs. Aventurine
You see many things come by, like pink jade, yellow jade, and blue jade. All of these stones typically are dyed something else, be it quartz or aventurine, true expensive jadeite is hard to find, and the price point will scare you, that’s the main difference. Nephrite jade is easier to find, but still, be looking for those color and texture differences to see if you’re getting the proper stone. Hope this post about jade Vs. aventurine may help you.
