Jade Carving

[Hong Kong's last remaining craft – Jade Carving]

What is the story behind each piece of the Jadeite Jade used in our design?

In addition to the “Cheongsam”, the “Traditional Jade Stone knowledge” and “Jade Craving Technique” are also on the list of Intangible Culture Heritage Inventory of Hong Kong now.  As one of the Hong Kong’s traditional crafts, a number of local Jade Carving masters in Hong Kong are still maintaining on Jade cutting, carving and polishing. 

How can a rough stone be transformed into a beautiful Gemstone step by step by the hands of our Hong Kong Jade Carving Masters ?

DESIGN

Firstly, we must carefully check the characteristics, texture, shape and dimension, and color of the rough, in order to determine the design or approximate shape of the finished product, and roughly outline it on the surface of rough stone.

Soak the rough in water, in order to stimulate and estimate the effect after polishing.  Also, directly irradiate with light, to find out the cracks and figure out the structure inside the rough.

CUTTING

Jade carving masters will cut out the parts which are unnecessary, and then the entire rough stone will roughly show the outline of the shape, some more small corrections will be further taken from now on.

If the cut of rough is too small, we may need to fix the rough to the rod for next step - polishing.

CARVING

Jade carving can be categorised into two types which are “Plain” (like cabochon) and “Pattern” (carved different pattern on the Jade).  For the “Pattern” one, the Jade carve master will start to carve different pattern from the rough now.  For the “Plain” one, it will be started to polish its plain surface.

Different types (textures) of the Jadeite Jade have different levels of transparency.  How to polish the Jade and let it become the brightest and the most transparent one is the knowhow for this step.  The Jade carving master will carefully adjust the thickness of the Jade during polishing.  In this industry, this step is also called as “adjusting moisture”.

POLISHING

This final part is very important. Perfect polishing allows light to be refracted inside the jade and also reflected on the surface, making the entire gem look brighter and shiny.

Polishing is also called "watering out" in the industry. The jade carving master must perform it carefully. Excessive force will also affect the dimension of the finished product.  For those designs with strict size requirements, deviations must not be tolerated.

Then, a piece of Jadeite Jade is finished like this!

The whole process is needed to be done by hand, and a perfect finished product further requires the experience and a fine craftsmanship.  Any mistake taken in any process will increase the wastage of the precious gem material, and which is irreversible.