For Allan Spehar, making jewelry is as much an athletic event ... To make what his wife has dubbed “Easter egg beads,” Spehar uses black jade from Australia and lavender jadeite from Turkey.

By Victoria Gomelsky One of the first things the jewelry designer Bliss Lau did after giving birth to her daughter, Soa, in 2018 was make her a black jade bracelet. “There are heirlooms and then ...