Hobbies And Interests
History
Humans have used jade for the last 7,000 years, according to the Geology.com. Early civilizations valued jade for its relative hardness for weapons and as cutting tools. Jade has a 6.0 to 7.0 Mohs hardness. Jade also served as a medium for inscriptions, such as mortuary tablets in China. Symbolic figurines and hieroglyphs also graced the surfaces of this ornamental stone in Mayan culture.
Jewelry
Humans have shaped and polished jade as a gemstone. Valued for its beauty, jade appears in many forms of jewelry: bracelets, necklaces, pendants, earrings and beads. Jade often appears alone or with other gemstones in gold, silver or other precious metal settings.
Diversity
Craftsmen have fashioned jade into objects ranging from small, personal items such as a snuff box to large, sculptural pieces such as the five-foot high sculpture of Mahavira in India's Jainit temple. Found in different continents, jade has provided an attractive and durable material valued by diverse cultures such as historic and contemporary Mesoamerica, China, India, New Zealand and North America.