Instead of going to the Tucson Rock and Gem Show this year, I decided to change plans and head up to British Columbia to learn jade carving. A few years back, I had bought a nice block of British Columbia jade while on a motorcycle trip to Lillooet, British Columbia, Canada. The city had several huge jade boulders in the city center with cut and polished faces. It was really impressive at the time.
Later I found out that BC was one of the biggest jade producers in the world. I hadn’t gotten “jade fever” yet, but I was still intrigued. I always love what the local area has in terms of rocks and gems. I did some more research and learned that there are actually two types of jade. “Jade is often called by either of two different silicate mineral names: nephrite (a silicate of calcium and magnesium in the amphibole group of minerals), or jadeite (a silicate of sodium and aluminum in the pyroxene group of minerals). Nephrite is usually green, but it can also be yellow, white, or black.” (Wikipedia)
BC jade is nephrite, while jadeite is mostly from Burma and Guatemala. The latter is usually more expensive. I also learned that the Nooksack River in Washington, my home state, has nephrite jade.
That’s when I started researching jade carving. I found a place in the Southern Interior of British Columbia. The time wasn’t right, so I saved the info for later. Well, this year finally became later. I looked into it again and found the original location as well as a second one in BC. After comparing the two, I decided to go with the original one I found in Vernon, BC, taught by Deborah Wilson of Evergreen Jade. She’s been carving jade for over 50 years!
On a cold February day, I took the 7-1/2 hour drive from Seattle to Vernon for a 5-day jade carving workshop in Deborah’s studio. It was cold, but the drive was through some beautiful country, including BC’s emerging wine country.
On the first day of the workshop, I met Deborah in her jade carving studio. It was cozy, with a warm wood fire crackling in her wood stove, even though the temperature was around 13 degrees Fahrenheit outside. We took a tour of her studio, checking out all the cool equipment and workstations. Deborah explained each piece of equipment and how it worked, including a drop saw, core drill, point carver, two grinding benches, a micro-motor carving/polishing station, and a big polishing station. I asked her a bunch of questions about their setup, especially about the water cooling systems.
Next, Deborah showed me her amazing collection of jade blocks for projects. She explained the different types and where they came from. She described how they were mined and their unique physical characteristics. It was so much fun to see them in person and notice things that don’t show up well in photos or rough blocks of the various types of jade.
We then looked at the sketches and images of the projects I had in mind. We decided to start with just the core of a Tibetan dagger. I’ll finish it later as I get better at carving jade. We picked out a nice piece of BC nephrite jade with some cool iron inclusions.
Deborah cut a large junk of jade on the drop saw. She then set up the core drill and showed me how to use it. I’ve drilled smaller holes in stones before, but using the larger core drill had a different way of securing the stone. We drilled a big core out of the block and then a smaller one halfway through. Next, we set up a cutting wheel on the point carver and cut the sleeve of jade off the main core where the second core stopped. We did the same thing with another smaller core drilled halfway through. After trimming that off, I had a piece of jade with a 3-tiered wedding cake effect and two smaller jade “tubes.”
After finishing the core pieces for the Tibetan dagger project, I decided to work on a project that I could do during my next 5 days in class. My main criteria was focused on the equipment we would need. I wanted something that would touch on each piece of equipment so that I could learn the use and characteristics with actual hands on feel. I also wanted to focus on the jade piece itself, including all the different angles and details that I wanted to incorporate into my future projects. This helped me to really focus on the stone and the shapes, curves, and angles. This then informed how Deborah would approach teaching me the tools and methods needed for each of the factors we discussed. In the end it wasn’t specifically about the piece, but rather the equipment and processes I was hoping to learn.
We decided to carve a kuoro design in the New Zealand Maori jade carving tradition (Pounamu). I had thought they were wave patterns, but I was wrong! Koru (Spiral) represents the unfurling frond of the native New Zealand silver fern. I did some research and learned the true meaning of the koru. It represents new beginnings, hope for the future, and the good that will follow. I showed Deborah a few examples that I liked, and she patiently sketched a unique design so that wouldn’t copy work of other artists.
Once the design was ready, we found a suitable slabbed piece of BC jade. We core drilled it to the size of the pendant. The round jade disc was too thick, so we cut it in half with a cutting blade on the point carver. Then we transferred the design onto the piece with a pencil. Next, we drilled holes of different sizes in the piece to remove the negative spaces within the design.
I then learned how to grind and shape the jade using different tools and methods. We started with sanding on the point carver to round the outer edge. Then, we worked on grinding with various bits on the micro motor to remove the remaining rough angles in the drilled-out voids. Next, we shaped the inner curves to round and taper them to the desired points. Each step, Deborah walked me through the tools and supplies we were using. She showed me how to approach each step, then turned me loose to follow through and learn with a hands on approach to see how to accomplish each step and feel what I was doing first hand.
The next step was the polish phase. Up to this point, I had only worked with water. The water dripped between the tools (core drill, sanding belts, and the grinding burrs) and the jade piece. The water cooled and removed debris. In the polishing phase, I worked dry to maximize the effects of the polishing compounds. I used premade polishing strips and sticks, diamond polishing burs, and homemade diamond polishing paste. Deborah showed me techniques for both the larger arbor polisher and the small micro motor hand tool. She showed me how to use the large arbor with heavy leather gloves to push hard and rotate the piece with polishing compound. The gloves are necessary to protect my hands because the piece can get really hot. It was important to have a firm grip on the piece so that it didn’t escape my grip and fly across the room. It was also important not to let the jade get too hot because it could bleach it out from green to white. The micro moter on the other hand was much more forgiving. It allowed me to move into the piece and do much more detailed polishing on the inside curves, nooks, and crannies.
Next, we added a small notch on top to make sure the cord stays put. We picked a black woven nylon cord that looked like the sinew cord used on traditional pieces, but it would be much stronger in the long run. We used a small flat jade roundel bead as the slider so we could adjust the size. We also put two small jade beads at the very end of the cord as little accents.
Once the piece was done, we took some time to walk through Deborah’s photography setup to take pictures of the finished piece in a balanced and beautiful way. The backlight was especially important because it let the light shine through the translucent piece and really showed off the beautiful green of the jade.
Deborah had a warm studio every day, and she served us tea and a homemade lunch. We often worked until 6 or so each evening. Her teaching and patience were amazing. She was very clear about what she wanted us to do, and she was always willing to change things based on my questions and ideas.
You can reach Deborah on her website or her Facebook page. Check out both of these to learn more about Deborah, her jade sculptures, and her jade workshops.
Resource Links:
Deborah Wilson's Jade Carving Workshops: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063497380752
Deborah Wilson Jade Carver website: http://www.deborahwilson.bc.ca/main.htm
KSPS PBS Public TV Video Interview of Deborah: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkGcHLO6EcE
Jade Mine (Jade West - USA): https://jademine.com/?srsltid=AfmBOooHDIa-7SAdGAXIVRViIClES4akey3hzqyMfYZJLpzQkYKei5hj
Jade Mine (Jade West - Canada): https://www.jademinecanada.com/?srsltid=AfmBOopgTT5cB1jACfcMwSdtB1E-W8Yn0ryMehvps8-nla01-21ojcGj
Definitions:
Point Carver: A specialized tool that uses a fixed point of contact to shape and refine the stone material being carved. It utilizes a mounted shaft where various tools or heads can be attached. It allows the user to bring the material (like jade or other hard stones) to a fixed point on the tool and maneuver it to achieve the desired shape and detail. Tools includes sanding belts, silicon carbide grinding burrs, diamond grinding burrs , and others.
Micro Motor: A small, high-speed rotary carving tool that is commonly used for detailed work, precision cutting, engraving, and finishing on various materials, including stone. Unlike traditional flexible shaft machines where the motor is separate and connected to the hand-piece by a flexible cable, micro motors have the motor integrated directly into the hand-piece.
High Speed and Control: Micromotors can achieve very high RPM (rotations per minute), often reaching 50,000 RPM, allowing for delicate and precise work. They offer superior control compared to traditional rotary tools.
Precision and Detail Work: They excel at tasks requiring fine detail, such as:
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- Shaping and contouring.
- Engraving intricate designs.
- Drilling small holes.
- Polishing and finishing surfaces.
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Nephrite: Nephrite jade is a variety of jade composed of dense, interlocking termite-actinolite amphibole crystals. It's known for its toughness, durability, and ability to take a high polish. It's chemically a calcium magnesium iron silicate, with the iron content influencing its color variations. Nephrite is one of the two types of jade (the other being jadeite). The chemical formula for nephrite is Ca2(Mg, Fe)5Si8O22(OH)2. It is hard (Mohs hardness of about 6.0 to 6.5), very tough, and dense, with a specific gravity of about 2.95.
Jadeite: A hard, translucent variety of jade, known for its vibrant colors, particularly the sought-after emerald green (also known as Imperial Jade). It is considered more valuable than nephrite jade due to its rarity, beauty, and durability. Jadeite is a silicate mineral composed of sodium and aluminum, and it is prized for its fine, glassy finish and range of colors, including lavender, white, yellow, orange, and black. Jadeite is a pyroxene mineral with composition NaAlSi2O6. It is hard (Mohs hardness of about 6.5 to 7.0), very tough, and dense, with a specific gravity of about 3.4.