Deep in the Motagua River Valley of Guatemala lies one of the world's most extraordinary geological treasures: a deposit of blue-green jadeite jade that has been prized by human hands for over three thousand years. This is the stone at the heart of JADEscape — Guatemalan Blue Jadeite, the material the ancient Maya valued above all others.
What Makes Guatemalan Blue Jadeite Unique
Jade is a term that covers two distinct minerals: nephrite and jadeite. Jadeite is the rarer and harder of the two, and Guatemalan jadeite is among the finest in the world. Its distinctive blue-green color — ranging from deep forest green to vivid teal to a rare and prized blue — comes from the presence of iron and other trace minerals in the stone.
All of our carvings are made from Type A jade, meaning the stone is entirely natural and untreated. No polymer impregnation, no bleaching, no artificial color enhancement. What you see is what the earth made.
Three Thousand Years of Human History
The Olmec, the earliest major Mesoamerican civilization, were among the first to prize Guatemalan jadeite, trading it across vast distances as early as 1000 BCE. The Maya inherited and deepened this reverence, developing jade carving into one of the highest art forms in the ancient Americas.
For the Maya, jade was literally more valuable than gold. Gold could be melted and recast. Jade — hard, cool, and impossibly green — was irreplaceable. It could not be faked or replicated. Each piece was unique, shaped by the earth over millions of years and by human hands over weeks of patient carving.
The Stone We Work With Today
The same Motagua Valley deposits that supplied the ancient Maya supply our studio today. When our artisans pick up a piece of Guatemalan Blue Jadeite, they are holding a material with an unbroken human history stretching back three millennia. That history informs every cut, every curve, every polished surface.
Our collection features primarily Guatemalan Blue Jadeite, with special collections incorporating jade from other great traditions around the world. But Guatemalan jadeite remains our foundation — the stone that started it all.
To learn how this stone is shaped by hand, read The Living Stone: How Mesoamerican Carvers Shaped Jade by Hand. To understand how the ancient Maya wore and revered jade, visit Worn by Kings: The Art of Jade Jewelry in Ancient Mesoamerica.
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