Member Voices: Mason-Kay Jade to Debut the International Jade Summit at the 2025 Monterey Bay Jade Festival

While jewelers take education seriously, there’s one niche within the industry that continues to feel like a mystery: Jade. Myths and misconceptions surrounding Jade fuel concerns about color change and durability, and the prevalence of treatments leaves many jewelers and appraisers intimidated by the stone, unsure how to talk about it, and wondering whether they should work with it at all.

This is why Mason-Kay Jade is organizing a first-of-its-kind educational event for U.S. Jade enthusiasts and gemologists this summer in California. The first annual International Jade Summit will take place on Saturday, June 14, 2025, within the Monterey Bay Jade Festival (now in its 6th year), which is slated for June 13–June 15 at Custom House Plaza in Monterey State Historic Park. [The Festival is run by Jade Events Unlimited, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to celebrating Jade, Jade culture, and the vendors who comprise the American jade industry.]

Jewelry from Mason-Kay Jade

Collectors know that much of the world’s Jade expertise and education is in China, a culture that has revered the stone for millennia. This scenario leaves English-speaking professionals with limited access to quality Jade education. Meanwhile, customers who do want Jade (but who can’t find it at their local jewelry store) often end up getting swindled into buying online from overseas sellers unscrupulously promoting treated Jade (B Jade, C Jade, B+C Jade, etc.) and Jade simulants (Quartz, Serpentine, Garnet, and many more) as “natural” or “genuine Jade.”

The International Jade Summit will be the first Jade-focused conference for jewelry and gemstone professionals in the U.S. This is a rare chance to meet experts whom most gemologists have only read about, connect with fellow jewelry and gemstone professionals, and learn the truth about the two Jades: Jadeite Jade and Nephrite Jade.

The Summit is an all-day event including educational seminars from a Jade miner, a gemologist, a geologist/geophysicist, and a Jade discoverer. Mary Lou Ridinger, who will be one of the speakers, actually rediscovered the lost Jadeite Jade deposits of Guatemala with her husband Jay Ridinger in the 1970s. A well-respected archaeologist, Mary Lou is one of the world’s leading experts on Guatemalan Jadeite Jade, who started the first Guatemalan Jade company of the modern era: Jade Maya.

Other speakers include Kirk Makepeace, a leading expert on Canadian Nephrite Jade and owner of Jade West Mining; Jeff Mason of Mason-Kay Jade, a GIA Graduate Gemologist who specializes in Jadeite Jade testing and valuation; and Lou Blanck, a geologist/geophysicist who will lecture on Nephrite Jade formation and origin.

Breakfast and lunch will be included, and there will be plenty of time for networking and to browse the Georg Schmerholz Jade Carving Exhibition at the Festival, all within sight of the Old Fisherman’s Wharf and Monterey Bay. The outdoor event features more than 45 Jade vendors, many of whom are Jade carvers who sell the stone as more than just jewelry but as works of art.

Georg Schmerholz is considered a master Jade carver by Chinese standards and is one of the vendors at the Festival. The Georg Schmerholz Jade Carving Exhibition—named in his honor—takes place inside Stanton Center, in the gallery next to the Summit’s conference room. Georg has won multiple gold and silver awards at Zi Gang Bei, a prestigious international Jade carving competition in Suzhou, China, and his work has been featured in a number of books on Jade. Most recently, his gold award-winning work “INFANT” was published on the cover of Lotus Gemology’s German-to-English translation of “Nephrite and Jadeite” by Heinrich Fischer.

The goal of this experience is to uplift the gem industry and enhance Jade knowledge, and the fact that it is all happening in coastal California only sweetens the deal! If you love ocean views, gemology, and Jade (of course) there’s really no reason not to attend.

Learn more and register by clicking here.

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Jordan Wentz is a sales representative for Mason-Kay Jade, which specializes in natural, untreated Jadeite Jade, as well as the cofounder of Jewels of the Trade (JOTT) with her husband Hun’r Wentz. Through their JOTT sales and marketing firm, they help businesses learn modern techniques to connect with customers through digital tools like social media and web and email marketing. She also has a popular YouTube channel that receives over 80,000 views a month where she educates consumers about Jade in an entertaining fashion as well as interviewing other industry personalities. She has also been chosen by the board of Jade Events Unlimited to be this year’s conference Director for the International Jade Summit. Reach her at Jordan@jottblog.com