The "Ice Queen" of jade, snowflake cotton is simply beautiful beyond measure

Jade lovers should all know that the cotton inside jade is a common defect, which can appear in the form of flakes, clumps, filaments, or dots. Most people will try to choose jade with less cotton. But there is a kind of cotton that everyone who buys jade likes very much. It can make the jade extremely beautiful and double its value. This is the "Ice Queen" among jade - snowflake cotton!

Most of the high-quality "snowflake cotton" comes from the Mu Na mine in Myanmar. Most of the jade produced there has uniform color and snow-like cotton. Later, there was a saying that "the sea and the sky are one color, with dots of snowflakes, the chaos is just beginning, and Mu Na is supreme." In recent years, good Mu Na snowflake cotton materials have been snapped up as soon as they appeared and are in great demand.

In other jades, cotton will more or less affect the overall beauty and value, but snowflake cotton is different. The pure white and light "snowflakes" float inside the jade and blend with it. Although there are many of them, they are well-spaced, uniform and orderly, giving it a beautiful artistic conception of "snow falling all over the sky", and it looks like a real snowstorm has fallen in the jade.

However, are all snowflake cottons popular? not necessarily!

Snowflake cotton also has good and bad points. It is not enough to just have cotton. Good quality snowflake cotton usually meets the following conditions:

1. Good water quality: No matter whether the jade is thin or thick, the water quality must be good, preferably glass type or high ice type. The more transparent the base is, the more it can highlight the beauty of snowflakes "every dot is clear and every grain is like frost and snow", adding a poetic and picturesque artistic conception. If the base is too turbid, it is not snow but haze!

Left: Turbid Right: Transparent

2. "Medium snow" cotton: The more snowflake cotton there is, the better it is. It should be evenly distributed and have artistic conception. Just like enjoying the snow, light snow melts as soon as it touches your hand, and heavy snow makes you unable to see anything. Only moderate snow is the best, and such snowflake cotton jade is more valuable.

Big, medium and small "snow"

3. Clear boundaries: The boundaries of the snowflake cotton must be clear and separated from the base. It is best if it seems to be suspended in the base.

Boundary comparison

4. Exquisite carving: The unique conditions of snowflake cotton provide creators with room to play. Good carving can play a finishing touch and even increase the value of jadeite by several times or even dozens of times.

Carving

Jadeite of the same water quality but with snowflake cotton is often more valuable!

The texture and carving of the two pieces of jade in the picture above are similar. The one on the left contains green floating flowers, while the jade pendant on the right has snowflake cotton that is evenly distributed. The overall artistic conception is better than the jade pendant with floating flowers.

The dragon pendant of the same material, the one on the left is not as valuable as the snowflake cotton dragon pendant on the right .

After understanding these, let’s enjoy the snow together!

The plum is three parts less white than the snow, but the snow is less fragrant than the plum. ——Lu Meipo, "Snow Plum, Part One"

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