How to extract the maximum profit from a boulder of Jadeite
This boulder of jadeite was recently bought by a carver for $9,300 USD. Buying jadeite is always a risky business as it is normal for the seller to cut a couple of windows into the oxidized skin of the stone to give the buyer an idea of the flesh inside. Quite often the jade that can be seen through the windows might seem very good quality but once the stone has been cut the rest of it can be relatively worthless. The buyer of this stone was quite pleased with the gamble he took. It appears to be fracture free and there is some patches of very high quality green jade inside.
Bangles
Any craftsman who wants to make money (in China) knows the biggest profits come from bangles. This is because it is never easy to find a flawless piece of high quality jade big enough to create one. The first thing this carver did was carve the jade into slices to identify how many bangles he might be able to make. The lighting in this photo isn’t great but the jade here is of good colour, is fracture free and very translucent.
It takes considerable skill to work out which parts of the stone to use for bangles. The ideal would be to find a slice of pure imperial green jadeite large enough for a bangle. This can fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars and at the top end several million. This stone has some very nice green but no slice saturated with enough colour to make the highest quality bangle. So the carver has worked around the the best green while at the same time identifying places where he can still make a high quality bangle with some green in it. The pure green patches in the stone will be used for beads for necklaces and small pendants
Jade Necklaces
The next most profitable item for a jade carver in China is the necklace. A jadeite necklace made from beads of pure green imperial jadeite can fetch extremely high prices at auction. The jade in this boulder isn’t quite that quality but there are patches of extremely nice green inside. The carver identifies where these are on each of the slices he’s cut and drills them out.
The beads shown here all come from this boulder. They are of various sizes and extremely high quality. The bigger they are the more expensive they become. This carver managed to carve a lot of beads from this stone. These photos just show the cream of the crop.
The remainder
There were some larger pieces of very high quality green hidden in this stone. They are too small for bangles and too large for beads. They will fetch very good prices once carved. This carver has put them aside for now and will use them as and when he gets a suitable commission
So far I’ve talked about the carver selecting the best of this jade boulder to create items with a hefty price tag. This still leaves the bulk of the stone to be dealt with. He cut it into about fifteen pieces, including twelve decent sized slices. The photo here is representative of what he did with the lower quality jade that was left. This is bread and butter carving. Profit margins are high if you use all the stone and then manage to sell it.
