Jade Chat – What are the jade carving techniques?

When talking about the quality of jade, we usually talk about "type, water, color" first, and "craftsmanship" is often the last one mentioned. However, the value of a piece of jade is often reflected through its carving craftsmanship.

The natural beauty of jade has captured the hearts of many people. Good jade carving can bring out the beauty of jade to the fullest and even take it to a higher level. When we buy jadeite, its exquisite carving is the most eye-catching. So, what are the basic techniques in jade carving?

First, let's talk about relief. As the name suggests, the carved image "floats" from the plane. Therefore, relief is a carving technique that carves out convex and concave images on a flat surface. The image that "floats" high on the surface is called high relief. The image that "floats" on the surface is low, which is called bas-relief. Their only viewing side is usually the front. Among the relief techniques, the "butting flower" technique is a gorgeous technique that is loved by sculptors.

The round carving and relief carving techniques of jade artifacts cannot be distinguished too separately. Sometimes, relief forms appear in the round sculpture technique, and relief forms also have similar expressions to round sculpture. Jade carving often combines round carving, relief carving, line carving and other techniques together to form a unique craft form.

Openwork carving is also called hollow carving. Openwork carving is a special technique that is interspersed between round carving and relief carving. Openwork carving emphasizes hollowing out, hollowing out, and digging out, deliberately removing the virtual parts other than the image to give the object a transparent and flexible sense of space. The openwork carving technique makes the carved image clear, and combined with jade, it has a more exquisite and translucent effect.

Round sculpture, also known as three-dimensional sculpture, has three-dimensional space, and viewers can see all sides of the object from different angles. The round carving technique requires the sculptor to carve from all directions: front, back, left, right, top, middle and bottom.

Since round sculptures are full of three-dimensionality, vivid, lifelike and expressive, the selection of stone for round sculptures is relatively strict. From length to width to thickness, they must all have appropriate proportions with the real object, and then the sculptors will "make the blank" according to the proportion. The purpose of "beating the blank" is to ensure that all parts of the sculpture meet the proportion requirements, and then carve out a vivid and lifelike work.

In addition to the basic techniques, are there any other special techniques in jade carving?

The art of carving with beautiful colors is a technique that uses the natural color of jade to make carvings. When creating jade pieces with beautiful colors, the main color of the jade is usually used as the base, and other colors are used as the background. It is best to have colors that are not mixed or similar, and the objects must be lifelike.

The technology of pressed wire and inlaid gems is to carve grooves on jade products, and use a small hammer to knock gold and silver threads into the grooves to form patterns, so that the gold and silver threads and the surface of the jade are on the same plane. The gold and silver inlaid effect of jade is called pressed wire. Pressing gold and silver threads and inlaying gems on jade articles is called thread pressing and gem inlaying.

Ring chains are commonly seen on jade vessels. Generally, the ring chains have to be taken out from the whole piece of jade, and the design can be determined after an overall study of the shape and the properties of the jade. The position, method, size and length of the chain are closely related to the stone properties of the jade and the overall shape of the work. Generally speaking, it is not easy to make the chain too thin with brittle materials, but it is possible to make beautiful chains with tough materials.

After understanding the jade carving process, we can more accurately choose our favorite jade pieces when purchasing jade. After all, "three parts color and seven parts craftsmanship", the charm of jade is more dazzling because of its carving craftsmanship.

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