What are the jade crafting processes? How is jade processing carried out?

As the saying goes, jade cannot be made into a useful object without being carved. Jade is known as the king of jade because of its high hardness, high specific gravity, and diverse colors including emerald, jadeite and purple, as well as the rarity and preciousness of its raw materials. Therefore, its production process, production materials, production tools and processing machinery are different from other jade. Now let's talk about the production and processing steps and process of jadeite:

Material selection: This is the key beginning. Most of the jade materials have skin. It is the only jade with skin in the world, so it is also called gambling stone or gambling goods, which is something other jade does not have. Therefore, the key to material selection is its production and processing purpose. The characteristics of raw materials are closely related to the production and processing purpose. If the selection is poor, not only will the raw materials be wasted, but the production and processing will also result in losses.

Cutting is also an important step. Some people are eager to gamble on the stone and often cut it with one cut. Not only may the jade be cut off, but it may also not be able to make the overall sculpture artwork, thus losing its original value. Usually the normal process is to wipe the skin first to look at the surface characteristics of the jade, such as the direction of the emerald color, the growth and direction of cracks, colors such as jade and purple, the distribution of black, study the changes in the inside and outside of the water quality and estimate the appearance of the original stone and other characteristics. In addition, the overall condition of the original stone and the possible purpose of production and processing are used to determine whether to make a carving with a whole piece of raw material or to split it into pieces.

China is an ancient civilization with thousands of years of history, and jade processing also has thousands of years of history. During the thousands of years of jade carving, our ancestors created very advanced tools and jade carving methods. We will briefly describe some of the most commonly used jade carving methods:

1. Relief: refers to convex carving, which includes shallow relief, deep relief, and colorful relief. Such as happiness, wealth, longevity, and prosperity.

2. Openwork carving: refers to openwork carving, which includes cross-shaped openwork carving, circular openwork carving, pattern openwork carving, etc. Such as: the lower limbs of animals and tree branches.

3. Hollow carving: refers to hollowing out jadeite without letting it see through. There are deep hollowing (such as vases, pen holders, etc.) and shallow hollowing (such as pen washers, ashtrays, etc.).

4. Line carving: refers to line engraving and silk carving, such as: human figures’ hair, animal’s body hair and waves, etc.

5. Yin carving: refers to a type of carving method in concave parts, such as Yin and Yang Bagua.

6. Round carving: refers to arc-shaped carvings, such as tea sets, cups and spherical jade pieces.

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