This is a short documentary on a variety of jade projects and carving techniques
In July 08, I was invited to do a carving demonstration at the jade shops in Vancouver and Victoria.
Well, I don't consider myself a "master" carver... but I do sometimes think, that Jade is the MASTER ...and I am carving it, because every time I work with the stone I learn many things. Many things enlighting.
Here is a variety of pendants I was carving during the shows. Shown here rough, before the many sanding and polishing stages.
A great visit to the Westcoast Sculpture Associate symposium out at Cowichan lake! This is the best group of stone carvers in the province. I highly recommend this event, great people and a lot of learning!
I also stopped down in Santa Monica, CA to do some repairs on a large Jade, Chinese mountain sculpture.
Setting up a work bench on location is often trickey as water is needed
during the carving and sanding processes. I am using a little pond pump
here with a small tap to manage water flow.
The raven bowl has been around the shop, slowly getting chipped away! This is a serpentine from the Fraser river. It is a chemically related and, metamorphic stone like jade. It is a little softer in general but this beautiful piece has some very wild and colourful oxidation pattering due to its river life.
Metal continues to be inspiring matrial to work with after a stone like jade. I continue my adventures into silver smithing and metal work.
One metal sculpture I am creating is to do with flight, motion verses time. Photographed in its rough stages, this sculpture will mime those clouds of Swallaws and Swifts you see darting and swooping with swift regimented form.
Roughed out copper wings. It is a sculpture to be supended.
This is a beautiful vessel carved delicately thin, out of jade from the Mt. Ogden deposit. "Halffull", is a twist on the old cliche; "the glass is half full", compared to "half empty".
nothing is easy, only simple.
Thank you for being here.
Earlier
I was first introduced to the stone of heaven when I opened a store for my family in Juneau, Alaska. A jade store, funnily enough. I had no real understanding of this magical stone, Jade or “Nephrite”, the geological name. As the days progressed however the hold of the stone captivated me to no end and I found myself ordering books online and at the library, so I could learn more.I couldn’t get enough information and the world’s legends and lore of Jade still amaze and stimulate me.The reverence for this stone and the time and efforts the peoples put into Jade 6000 years ago are awe inspiring.The diligence, the patience, the personal sacrifice, and the divine connection with the natural world around them are, I believe, valuable qualities that much our modern society has lost. Why was there such a reverence for Jade? The answer to this question evades me, and ironically, I hope I never find it, even though I search constantly.
Relief carving from the Zhou period approx 700 BC!
I bought a Dremel tool while in Juneau, and a few diamond tip burrs (necessary for carving this extremely tough material). I sat at my kitchen table through hours of Alaskan midnight sun carving these little pieces, feeling them out with personal curiosity. Staggering is the stone’s resilience yet welcoming is its texture. The random arrangement of the microcrystalline matrix of Nephrite Jade is the reason why the stone is the toughest natural material on the planet.Once you are able to read the stone’s alignment, you find a good and cooperative friend. More often than not even when the stone breaks unexpectedly, and you continue to work with it you will find that the stone’s personality will lead you to a better outcome in the end.
An example of this happened during the creating of “Release,” a stylized heron form that stands about four feet tall in its finished state turned out to be more proportional when the stone broke during the early stages of carving. At first my eyes popped out of my head and then I realized that it’s actually a better scale with these new dimensions.
Deborah Wilson
After my first kitchen table experiments, I found a great teacher in Deborah Wilson, a wonderful person and artist, who had the ability to coax a design from me and teach the techniques required to accomplish it.
I also found a great friend and inspiration in Kevin Campbell another great BC artist, he though apprenticed in New Zealand. There were no creative boundaries in our tee-pee sessions, ancient Maori designs fused with Northwest coast life. His artwork led me into the archetypal language of tribal art. I think it is this link of jade to the ancient ways that we share as our inspiration.
Kevin Campbell
Kutcho creek early summer!
Most of the stone I use comes from the Polar and Kutcho creek mines in northern BC, Canada. This jade has some of the most vivid greens ever found, it can be very translucent, and is slightly harder than other sources which allows for a more brilliant polish. These are not the only qualities I will look for by any means, there are a huge number of anomalies that happen to jade when it is going through its metamorphism deep within the earth, and I love them all. I am generally attracted to these unique characteristics for exploration and my own personal understanding. I enjoy the natural wind and sand blasted jade from Wyoming, river slicks from the Arahura and Karakesh, jade from a mountain top in Alaska, or from the valley of the Motagua, or even from up in the lakes of Switzerland (albeit in the form of adze blades and other tools) and the massive open pit mines of Myanmar, the Jade is always different, and it is beautiful that way.
Where I am now, hmmm I really enjoy learning about the Neolithic jade cultures, especially of China and their absolutely amazing creations. I believe their designs coupled with their primitive tools with which they practiced were astonishing. There are many sculptures of this age that exhibit such a powerful and ubiquitous presence it gives me goose bumps. I think that I am becoming more conscious of some of these traditional design concepts when doing my own work and look forward to learning much more in the future.
The polar pride. gem boulder
The Arahura river. New Zealand
Here is a really quick glimpse at the entrance of jade country in northern British Columbia.
A strong influence in my work are the graceful, flowing lines and curves of the Maori jade and bone carvings. Their many formal and cultural designs remain as a guide post for the organic feel I enjoy expressing. Together with the early Chinese jade work these two cultures provided some of the finest master crafting of this beautiful gem. I study and learn whatever clues I can see left in the stone. Clues and inspirations continue.
A lidded Ram
A Zun
Richard Anderson. The Tauihu (Prow)
In conjunction with studying the past, I am in a very curious for new techniques especially of engineering or architecture, trying to build on my own repertoire. It is due to this, bobbing for apples style approach to wisdom, you will see subject matter and style vary greatly in my current works. I think this exploration and curiosity together with a love for nephrite is what leads me…to greener pastures!
