There are many themes of jade pendants, but we generally divide them into two types: plain pieces and carved pieces. Plain pieces include the common peace buckles, Ruyi, melons, etc., while carved pieces have much richer contents and themes, such as common landscapes, dragons, flowers and birds, etc.

The value of a raw artifact is determined by the natural quality of the jade. A raw artifact with good natural quality will naturally have a high value, while one with poor quality will have a relatively low value. But carvings are different. Some jadeite with poorer natural quality may have a lot of cotton, stone patterns, dirty spots, etc. The sculptor can use carving techniques to remove these factors that reduce the value, thereby increasing the value of the entire work. That’s why there is a saying in the jade carving world that “three parts jade, seven parts workmanship.” This leads some jade lovers who are just getting started to make a cognitive misunderstanding – they think that the more work done on a jadeite carving, the better, and the higher its value.

However, more often than not, carving also means there are more flaws on the jade. What you think is the area with more carving is actually covering up a crack underneath. Today, I will give you a summary of the common splitting methods.

Landscapes are the best subject matter for avoiding cracks, so jade materials with cracks are often used to make landscapes. The mountains on landscape plaques can avoid cracks, stones can avoid cracks, and trees can also avoid cracks... As long as the cracks on the material are not through-and-through, landscapes can perfectly avoid cracks. So when taking out landscape plaques, especially three-dimensional ones, you must pay more attention to see clearly.

To avoid cracks in mythical beast themes, the complex lines of the themes are generally used to hide the cracks on the lines. For example, dragon plaques will hide the cracks in dragon scales, dragon whiskers or dragon claws, etc. Outside the main body of the mythical beast, auspicious clouds, fireworks, water ripples, etc. will be used to avoid cracks.

Flower and bird cards usually use petals or leaves to avoid cracks.

In principle, materials with cracks are generally not used to make Buddhist statues. Firstly, it has a bad meaning, and secondly, such themes are mostly smooth and difficult to avoid cracks. But what should I do if I find cracks after doing it? This steel is usually decorated with auspicious patterns such as swastikas, ruyi, or auspicious clouds to avoid cracks.

Some things that can be easily mistaken for carvings are actually details to avoid cracks

1. The circles and dots on the golden toad's body are similar to those of Pixiu, dragon, etc.

2. The hair on the monkey's body, and similar carvings of other hairy animals.

3. The shallow carving pattern on the back of the pendant. Generally, the back of a neat sign is smooth. If there are a few shallow carvings on the smooth surface, it must be to avoid cracks.

4. Shallow carving patterns on plain workpieces. Plain workpieces are mainly smooth, and no patterns will be drawn for no reason. If there are any, it must be to avoid cracks.

Therefore, sometimes more carvings are not necessarily a good thing. When we buy jade pendants, we must pay attention to those elements that are not very reasonable!

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