Increase your knowledge! The secrets of jade processing and carving

1. Jade

Judging jade means observing its appearance, shape, color, quality, cracks, etc. It is actually a process of touching the environment. Jade needs to be designed before it can be carved. No machines or tools can replace human design, conception and creativity. The jade color spectrum is wide and varied, with dozens of types. Different raw materials are very different. Even the type, water content, and color of different parts of the same jade material are very different. Jade carving must first be conceived and designed based on the size, color, type, water content, texture, and grain of the jade material.

A painter once said when discussing painting: "When I wake up in the morning, I watch the changing clouds and the mountains in the painting. When I see a strange tree while hiking in the mountains, I must look at it from all four sides. Some trees may not fit into the painting if I look at them from the left, but they will fit into the painting if I look at them from the right. The same is true for the front and back."

The same is true for examining jade. It needs to be examined repeatedly from different angles to discover its beauty. Each piece of jade raw material has its own characteristics, and these characteristics are a kind of "natural scenery" that has not been artificially carved. When our eyes come into contact with this "natural scenery", the first thing we need to do is to discover the beauty and shortcomings in it, make full use of the species, water, and color characteristics of the jade raw materials, and through the processing of the mind, that is, psychological processes such as association and imagination, make necessary choices about the "scenery", and then organize it into a new picture. But jade carving is not painting after all. For painting, there is plenty of drawing paper for you to paint on. But for jade carving, you can only use limited stones to measure the materials. Therefore, jade inspection is a very important part of jade carving creation.

2. Shape

Drawing is the continuation of jade inspection. Through jade inspection, the shape of the carving work is designed according to the type, water content, color and other factors of the jade raw material. The jade carving master has already determined the general subject matter to be expressed in the jade material, such as figures, flowers, crows, incense burners and utensils. This hazy picture is actually revealed by painting it on jade or drawing with a brush. This is the key to jade carving creation and an important process of transforming the virtual into the real. This process often takes a long time to determine. Because jade carving is destructive. Jade raw materials can only be carved to remove materials, and no fillers can be added. Once the jade material is sawed open, it cannot be started again, so the design and conception must be done with great caution. You can't start carving easily before you have formed a picture with artistic conception.

3. Treatment

The processing technology of jade is also very important. No matter how good the jade design is or how sophisticated the machinery is, if the technology is not good, it will not produce high-quality products. Rough carving is the substantial stage of jade carving production, that is, through technical means such as chopping, chiseling, marking, buckling, scratching, punching, rolling and drilling, the jade material is gradually turned into one or more three-dimensional sculptures, but it cannot be called a complete work.

4. Expressive

In jade carving, fine carving means making delicate modifications to roughly carved jade articles. It is the process of making jade carvings more perfect and adding more charm. During this process, it is necessary to realistically depict many details of the jadeware, such as the facial expressions, eyes, clothing patterns of the characters, the eyes, hair, claws, beaks of animals and birds, the stems and leaves of flowers and plants, and other parts that best show the charm. Jade carving pursues realism and moderate exaggeration. However, making the carving vivid and full of artistic conception is not something that everyone can do. It can be said that every piece of jade raw material has its own meaning. Only artists with ingenious ideas and superb skills can combine their inner meaning and realm with the meaning and realm of the stone itself based on their long-term artistic practice, and thus carve out artistic treasures.

In short, for a jade piece to become a work of art, it must have beauty in form, color, and artistic conception. Examining the jade is the key to jade carving. "Measuring the material and selecting it" and "applying skills in accordance with the material" are the basic requirements for jade carving. And if jade works are to have artistic conception, the jade must be lifelike and vivid.

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