The jade materials of today's popular jade wares have their own merits and the carving methods are similar, but there are still certain differences in the handling of some details. Today I will briefly share with jade lovers the "water adjustment" technique in jade carving.

Water adjustment is also called "water diversion", which is the process of adjusting the water head of jade through artificial methods to enhance the texture and layering of the finished product, making it more transparent, moist and lustrous.

Some jadeite has poor quality, so its light transmittance will be relatively weak, appearing to be free of water or with weak water. The water adjustment technique helps light penetrate the surface of jade and enter the interior. This will make jadeite with poorer quality look moist and transparent!

The water adjustment of jade is common in the process of carving and inlaying:

“Water Adjustment” in Sculpture

There are many ways to adjust water during carving, such as reducing the thickness of jade and grinding it into thinner pieces to enhance its light transmittance and improve its transparency, making jade more transparent and "watery".

Another example is that the back of the pendant can be carved into a concave negative side (arc surface) to increase the light-receiving area of ​​the jade, thereby enhancing the texture and layering of the carved pattern on the front. This can achieve the effect of adjusting the water without affecting the thickness of the jade, killing two birds with one stone!

For the major categories of jade carvings, such as formal Guanyin and Buddha, the jade carver will thin out the back of Guanyin's head, Buddha's belly and the back of his head, so that the finished product presents a crystal clear beauty.

When carving some jadeite materials with darker colors and thicker color blocks, in order to make the colors more vivid and translucent, jade carvers will often outline the dividing line between green and colorless during the carving process, appropriately reducing the thickness of green in non-main parts to increase light transmittance and achieve a "watery" effect, while making the colors more icy and fresh.

But it is worth noting that grinding the jade into a thin layer does not necessarily mean that the water content can be adjusted. The "watery" feeling of jade can only be produced after a certain depth and thickness interact with the type and base. Therefore, if the jade is cut too thin, although it is translucent and has improved transparency, it often lacks the "watery" feeling!

"Water Adjustment" in Mosaic

Water adjustment in inlay is mainly achieved through the method of "inlay bottoming". The inlay artist uses a whole piece of metal to wrap the back of the jade, and uses the curvature of the sealing material and the metallic surface to focus and reflect light onto the jade. This not only enhances the surface gloss of the jade, but also adjusts the color, making the finished inlay more moist and the color more fresh!

The use of the "water adjustment" technique can not only improve the perfection of jade, but also visually increase the transparency and wateriness of jade. It is one of the important processes in the jade carving creation process that affects the value of the jade finished product. If it can be used freely, the jade raw material will have unexpected artistic appreciation value.

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