Carving Jade takes time. A lot of time. It is such a tough material that diamond tools are needed to abrade it. Even then it is a matter of slowly shaping the stone to fashion something of beauty. There are many failures and missteps during the creative process but the reward when something comes together makes it all worthwhile.
Matriarch
Mother
A Triptych of three jade figurines representing three ages of a woman - maiden - mother - matriarch. The matriarch is carved in Marsden Flower Jade, the mother in Edwards Black Jade and the maiden is fashioned from New Zealand stone.
Maiden
Three versions of Mjollnir, the Hammer of Thor, the Norse God of Thunder. An amulet of protection for those who believe in the old ways.
Traditional Ping An Kou amulet of protection
Soft Wind pendant in Black jade with gold
Single Twist in green jade with gold clasp
It’s not just jewelry that is fashioned from jade. Tea sets, jugs, bowls, knives, spoons and goblets are among the household items carved from the Stone of Heaven.
To carve items like these requires finding a flawless piece of jade large enough to do so. This is always a gamble as there are often cracks and imperfections hidden in the stone that don’t emerge until after you start working on it.
The Triple Mobius shown here carved in Olmec Blue , Cassiar Green and Celadon jade. This has come to represent the Wheel of Life in China.
Honey Jade and Gold pendant
This piece is called màohé-shénlí which is a Chinese idiom which roughly translates as ‘ two people seemingly in harmony but but actually harbouring hostility’. The materials used were white Chinese jade, black American jade, green jade from Yemen, rosewood and 24k gold.
It didn’t win medals for the quality of the carving but for the meaning behind it. The white jade figurine represents China and the black figurine represents the United States. They are sitting in a boat made from rosewood which represents the fragile world we all live in. The boat is floating on a sea made from jade that comes from the Middle East which represents the oil which both countries need to power their giant economies. If you look at the figures they are about to start rowing against each other. If they do so the boat will tip over and our fragile world will come to grief. I carved this in 2015 when relations between these two great superpowers were not quite so strained. Let’s hope they can find some common ground and become friends, or at least not start rowing against each other.
Jade Bracelets braided with silk and adorned with silver and gold
The principle behind Yīn Yáng
Yin Yang pendants are a merging of black and white jade. The principle behind Yin Yang is that all things exist as opposites,female-male, dark-light and old-young. The two jades that have been fused to make these pendants represent dark and light. The symbol is thousands of years old and is a fundamental concept in Chinese philosophy and culture.
The Scream
I have a great fondness for this carving. It is the outside rind of a fabulous piece of the best Marsden Flower Jade. As soon as I saw it I could see The Scream by Edvard Mvnch within it. It is my attempt to ‘carve’ an oil painting in jade.
