Good material does not require bad work! Low-grade materials can still be used to carve jade carvings worth hundreds of thousands!

There is a saying in the jade industry: "Good materials will never be made with bad workmanship." It is said that good jade raw materials must be made with exquisite workmanship; then conversely, does it mean that bad materials must have rough carvings? You will understand after looking at an example!

The above roughly carved jade stone doesn’t look very good. The color is not bright enough and the quality is not good enough. The only bright spot is that it comes in several colors. It stands to reason that such material would not be carved with great craftsmanship!

But there was a master who took a fancy to it and carved it step by step.

At the last look, it is clearly a fine jade carving. It must be worth a lot of money wherever it is placed!

The jade carving master named it "Viewing Tai Chi", looking to the south at the vast ocean, to the north at Tai Chi, with purple air coming from the east and endless blessings.

In fact, isn’t it true that jade carvers are best at turning decay into something magical? Therefore, the quality of the material cannot determine its ultimate value.

The pattern of a jade ornament should be designed according to the color and texture of the jade, so as to give full play to the inherent characteristics of jade: some jade is suitable for shaping into dynamic galloping horses, while others are suitable for shaping into static landscapes, Guanyin, Maitreya Buddha, etc.

Also, because each piece of jade has a specific color, transparency, and texture, even if they are carved into the same shape, the styles will be very different. It can be said that every jade ornament is unique.

But it is worth noting that among all kinds of jade materials, the price difference of jadeite raw materials is the largest. High-end raw materials cost several million yuan per kilogram, while many of the worst jadeite raw materials are used to build walls in Myanmar.

Faced with such a situation, how can we overturn the fallacy that "high-end products cannot be carved out of low-end materials"? The key still lies in the jade carving industry's "applying materials in accordance with the material".

Jade is made from natural jade, and the most important point is "using materials in accordance with the material", which is the fundamental difference between it and other artificial artworks such as antiques, calligraphy and paintings.

The value of jade is more importantly determined by the scarcity of the raw material. In high-end jade, the value of the raw material itself accounts for 90% or more of the finished jade. Good craftsmanship is like the icing on the cake, which best demonstrates the charm of jade itself.

But if the jadeite itself is not expensive, the best craftsmanship is the one that can best bring out the strengths of the jadeite and avoid its weaknesses, and it will never override the jadeite, and it will be created entirely according to one's own ideas.

Good materials are hard to come by nowadays, and the value of jade carvings depends mainly on the craftsmanship rather than the material. Good materials cannot be made with poor workmanship, otherwise it will be a waste and become a dregs; but poor materials can be made with good workmanship, and this is the development direction that the jade carving industry should pay attention to in the future!