Making of a bangle

Good quality white jade of reasonable size is often made into jade bangles as the profit is higher. To cut into a jade bangle, it is important that the jade has no defects like cracks and impurities as these blemishes will significantly lower the quality of the bangle produced, and hence its price.

A good quality white jade bangle with traces of the skin

 The jade artist often gambles for a piece of jade boulder with the outer skin intact. He then cuts open the boulder and inspects its quality in terms of colour, texture, density and mutton-fat characteristics. If the boulder turns out to be of exceptional quality, he will reap huge profit from the raw boulder that he has earlier acquired. Otherwise all his investment will go down the drain.





He then marks out the inner and outer diameter of the shape of the bangle and cut the shape.


Cutting the boulder into half

Raw jade boulder

 

 

With the inner circle of the jade material removed, then bit by bit he removes the material to get the shape of the jade bangle. After many rounds of processing, the jade bangle will eventually take its final shape. If the jangle is further processed by a master, its value can increase by another 60%.

 

 

The jade bangle below has a price tag of over 3 million as there are final touches done by a grand master on the bangle. With his signature engraved on the inner side of the bangle, the price will be more than double its original value.

 

 

Crazy stones II - White Jade 和田玉

The Chinese love of white jade 和田玉 has sent the price of white jade to such a high level that it is worth many times more than gold on a per gram basis. This is especially true for white jade of the highest quality, the stone that exhibits a colour and texture that resemble the fat of mutton. This is traditionally called the mutton-fat quality in white jade. It has that characteristic oily yet succulent juice-like sticky texture. It has always been the favourite of all jade types of the Qing emperors. This jade is found in the Xinjiang region of northern China. Good quality white jade is usually made into jade bangles and jade stone carvings. These jade pieces can fetch millions of dollars.

Mutton-fat whit jade

There is a couple in Shanghai who own a jade carving workshop. This couple have been collecting white jades of all types for quite a number of years. Although they possess a large collection of white jades, some of mutton-fat quality, they are still not satisfied with their collection and are still looking for the white jade of the finest mutton-fat quality. In 2007, the couple had a call from an agent in Xinjiang that a native of Xinjiang had a large piece of white jade of exceptional quality for sale. Immediately the couple flew to Xinjiang and went to the native's house to take a look at this huge boulder. As soon as the native unveiled the boulder from the cloth that covered it, the husband's eyes sparkle and uttered some words to praise the jade. The native of Xinjiang knew that the couple got hooked by the exceptional jade boulder, he then asked for an incredible price of eighty million dollars. He even asked the couple to examine it carefully and take 2 days to make a decision. The couple knew that if they delayed any longer to buy the jade boulder, someone might come along and snatch it from them. They knew they had little ground to negotioate, they had to buy the jade boulder for this is the finest white jade that they had ever seen, the ultimate mutton-fat quality. After many rounds of intense negations, they finally bought the jade boulder and brought it back to Shanghai.

 

The white jade boulder with a price tag of 80 millions

Many of his business associates and jade collectors heard the news, they all brought along their finest whit jade pieces just to compare with this ultimate one. Unfortunately this jade boulder out-shined other collectors' in terms of colour, texture and the mutton-fat character.

 

The jade boulder outclassed other jade of similar qualities

Since 2000s, the price of white jade from Xinjiang has been increasing steadily and discriminating mining of the jade along the river banks has created a lot of unpleasant sights. In early days, the natives were digging the jade with simple tools. Nowadays, bull dozers were sent in to dig this precious stone in a very scale.


The couple with their jade boulder

 

Heavy equipment to dig for the stones

Early days jade-mining

The raw jade boulders that come from the river banks are usually dense and come with a certain brown skin, the result of many years of washing by the river and the interaction with chemicals and environment. This jade boulders with the characteristic brown skin are highly sough after by collectors and traders. In Xinjiang, jade traders are seen everywhere, the rich will have their own shops and the not so rich will display their stocks on road sides.

 





Another smaller boulder auctioned for 8.8 millions in 2012

A native from Xinjiang with his precious boulder

 

Jade carving 1

 

Jade carving 2

White jade bangle over 600000 dollars

The Bonsai King

Have you heard of a bonsai plant that is worth 6 million dollars? Crazy, isn't it?

Well, here is a picture of the king of all bonsai plants.

Bonsai with a price tag of 6 million dollars

This bonsai plant is over 280 years old and is housed in its own glass mansion that has temperature control and other facilities. The owner paid 1.6 million dollars for it and there are people willing to offer 6 million dollars just to keep it. It was said that the tree was already in existence during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing dynasty. It has not only survived all these turbulent years but flourished as well. Just look at the roots and those branches and you will agree.

Visitors admiring the king of bonsai

The plant actually belonged to a rich family during the Qing dynasty and was a star attraction in the family garden. As the fortune of that family declined, it was sold to someone. The present owner is a vivid bonsai lover, he starts his own bonsai cultivation from a young age. He has collected quite a number of bonsai plants and house them in his garden. But he regrets for not being able to own this king of bonsai. Hence, he went hunting for this bonsai king all over China but his efforts failed. Then this bonsai king suddenly appeared in a competition and won the first price. He contacted the previous owner and eventually paid 1.6 million dollars for it. With the bonsai king in his possession, he wanted to restore the glorious garden of the rich family and placed the bonsai king as the center of attraction in the garden. He succeeded in his effort and now the garden is open to the public to view his collection of bonsai plants, the bonsai king in particular.

The proud owner and his bonsai king

Look at those trunks and branches

Crazy Stones

Stones collecting has become very popular and hot in China. These are no ordinary stones. They have artistic designs on them. It all depends on the individual collectors. Once a unique design or features are spotted on the stones, they can become very sought-after pieces and their values increase tremendously. This is the age of the crazy stones as reported by CCTV of China. There are stones vendors and stone collectors who become very rich by the stones they discovered. The vendors collect the stones from river banks, mountainous regions or field underground. Then then display their finds in rare stones markets. Once the collectors discover the unique ones (through they own interpretation of the features on the stones), they buy these stones and other collectors will then counter offer to acquire them, usually paying a premium price to secure the ones they like. Some ordinary stones may be bought for tens of dollars but eventually changed hand for hundreds and thousands of dollars.

Stones lying on river banks

A stones night market

Interesting features on a stone

There is a story about this collector who spotted this unique stone in a shop. When the shop owner showed him the stone, it was in a vertical position and he could not find anything unusual about the stone. But when he turned the stone the other way around (in a horizontal position), his eyes sparkled, and he noticed that the stone has a design of a galloping horse on its front face. Immediately, he paid 10 dollars for the stone. When his collector friend saw the stone, he offered him 300 dollars for it but he declined the offer. Two years later, a businessman offered him 30000 dollars for this stone and he was still not willing to part with it. Amazing, isn't it. Stone collecting/admiring has become such a crazy thing. There are many similar stories about how very ordinary stones become very expensive once somebody spotted the unusual characteristic features on them. Next time if you happen to step on a stone, take a look at the stone. It may bring you great fortunate.

This collector admiring the horse design on this stone

What about this one?

There are intrinsic values in stones

Did you see a bird?

 





Year of the horse teapot

This year is the year of the horse. To commemorate this year of the horse, teapot master, Xu Sihai, has come up with a teapot design that depicts a picture of the horse with a theme 马到成功. The design of the horse is taken from a famous antique of a horse stepping on the back of a swallow (马踏飞燕).

Xu Sihai 许世海, a native from Shanghai, is a well known teapot collector and also a self-taught teapot maker who learnt art from the famous painter Tang Yun. He was the first to open his own museum in Shanghai to show case his collection of over 2000 pieces of fine teapots. One of the famous teapot in his collection is the King of all teapots, a globular shaped teapot crafted by the legendary Shou Dahen of the Qing dynasty. This teapot is reported to be worth over a hundred million dollars and even with such a high price tag, the owner is not going to sell it.

King of all Teapots

From the China Press:
午马年的马蹄声已经来到，年前由著名壶艺大师许世海设计创作、四海窑制作的紫砂生肖马壶成功问世。此款马年生肖紫砂壶的设计，独具特色，传递了平步青云马到成功的精神。许四海和许泽峰父子俩创意构思了整整六个月。生肖马紫砂壶其特点：图文结合、讲究内涵和品位，壶体气势昂扬、古朴大气，壶嘴为昂首的马头，意在唯马首是瞻也。细细观赏生肖马壶，壶身线条流畅，是一款上虚下实，阴阳相合的一把提梁壶，完全符合中国人的审美口味。提梁式样的壶把，自壶肩而凌空而起，整个壶体显得气宇轩昂，古朴大气。壶身刻有许四海亲笔题字的“马到成功”书法及马踏飞燕的图案。这把紫砂马壶，许四海均采用储备20年的原矿老段紫砂泥，色泽优雅，透气率佳，茶汤顺和平适，适合冲泡各种茶叶。在世博会期间，许四海曾经设计制作过一套 12把，以中文字为主设计的生肖紫砂壶，受到追捧，目前一壶难觅。从2012年起，许四海与其子许泽峰便合作设计，推出了生肖图文壶。

　　紫砂生肖马壶，采用了佛家法器之一的钵盂为壶身，以示光泽，与人为善，壶盖上印有六朵如意祥云图案，取了顺兴风调雨顺之意，寓意吉祥。

　　（图为四海窑紫砂生肖马壶）

 

Amazing stone carvings

There are 4 types of stones produced in China which are classified as the national stones of China. They are the Chicken Blood stones from Changhua in Zhejiang, Qintian stones from Sankou in Zhejiang, Balin stones from Inner Mongolia and Shoushan stones from Fuzhou. All these stones have their own characteristic features and colours and are ideal materials for making into seals and carvings due to their soft nature and translucent appearance. They are many different varieties and grades, the best of them is the Tianhuang stones from the Shoushan region which is priced at more than ten thousand per carat. It is considered as the king of all seal materials by the Qing emperors who had many seals carved out from this yellowish translucent stone. The chicken blood stones, on the other hand, is considered as the queen of all seal materials by the Qing emperors due to the traces of magnificent red colour on the stone which resembles blood flowing out from a freshly killed chicken. There are also chicken blood stones from Balin stones in inner Mongolia. These stones have a better stone quality (translucent and crystal like) and the blood clour is fresh and fluidic in nature. Incentally carvings and seals made from this stones are highly sought after.

Tianhuang stone carving

 

Blue Star carving by grand master, NiuKexi

A chicken blood stone carving depicting Chairman Mao

 There are other good quality Qintian stones such as the Dengkuangtong, FongmenQin and Blue Stars which are highly sough after by collectors. Fongmenqin has a characteristic greenish yellow colour and a very translucent appearance. If you shine a torch light on the Dengkuangtong, you can see through the stone with its characteristic orange colour. It is magnificent when made into carvings. The Blue Star, on the other hand, has speckles of blue dots on a milky white stone that looks like stars on a heavenly white sky. Some grand masters took up to a few years to carve out these masterpieces of stone carvings through blending the different colours of the stones with their artistic talent and skills in stone carving. Most of these stone carvings are national treasures and they are not for sale.

Fongmenqin carving by Nietongfang

Crystal clear stone carving from Shoushan

 

Shoushan stone carving

 

Balin chicken blood carving by a grand master

 

Dengkuangtong carving