In effect, “They took written plaques and chopped them down into costume jewelry,” Seitz said. Those discoveries suggest that blue jade was “a valuable material whose source had been lost ...

For Allan Spehar, making jewelry is as much an athletic event ... Tapestry festival in the form of a large piece of Pacific Blue jade he found on a recent dive at Jade Cove.

“This is a color we call ‘sapphire blue,’” Mr. Miller said ... Goodman featured it in its central jewelry showcase. “The nephrite jade really suits my aesthetic,” Mr. Jorge said ...

The find includes large outcroppings of blue jade, the gemstone of the Olmecs ... which found their way into Guatemalan jewelry shops and, eventually, the hands of astonished scientists.