The beauty of jade is like the essence of nature, and each piece has flaws. Just as no one is perfect, everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses, and like natural rough stones, they are all imperfect.
What is the most valuable thing in jade carving?Connoisseurs say: the instrument can be a gift country, the bracelet can be heirlooms, and the brand can raise people!
Jade, which refers to utensils and ornaments carved from jade, is a large jade work. Due to the scarcity of raw materials and the reduction of high-quality materials, many jade carvers have shifted from "adapting their art to their aptitude" to "cutting materials according to their materials", resulting in fewer and fewer materials that can be used to make large-scale works.
In addition, in terms of production cost and time, large works require longer time and higher skill, and at the same time, they will also cause waste of materials.
As a result, many studios are reluctant or unable to complete a large piece, preferring instead to make small pieces because they are simpler, easier to monetize, and there are not many masters who can actually carve out large pieces.
For collectors, they may have heard the phrase "one piece, two bracelets, three cards, four pieces, and five pendants". From the point of view of collection value, jade ware is the highest, decreasing in turn. Indeed, according to the current market**, the value of Hetian jade bracelets is also considerable!
Some people may not be able to understand why jade bracelets are so expensive. Jade bracelets are generally not carved, and the labor cost is very low, but ** is very high. Some high-quality seed bracelets are even worth millions!
First of all, let's be clear: really good materials are already very rare!And the production of bracelets has very strict requirements for materials. In addition, there is also a high risk of cutting, and sometimes what looks like a large piece of seed material may not make a bracelet after cutting. Materials with flaws and cracks cannot be used to make jade bracelets at all, and bracelets made of poor materials are not only poor in color, but also poor in texture. In this way, it is determined from the source that the ** of the bracelet will not be low.
Secondly, it is precisely because the bracelet has extremely high requirements for materials that the production of Hetian jade bracelets is very wasteful!Often, only one or two bracelets can be made from a large piece of material!In addition, the utilization rate of leftover material after cutting the bracelet is low. This is equivalent to condensing the value of a whole piece of material into one or two bracelets, so it is reasonable to be high.
Now, you know why bracelets are the most valuable type of Hetian jade, right?
In terms of brands, people now prefer Su Ping'an cards, that is, they do not carve the shape, but directly show the natural texture and color of jade, or the natural pictographic pattern. The standard brand is 1 cm thick, 4 cm wide and 6 cm long, implying peace all year round. The texture of jade is also required to be high, and a few flaws will affect the overall look and quality of the brand. Therefore, although the brand is small, there can be no flaws, and there are high requirements for the purity of the material.
The handle refers to the jade piece used for hand play, which is usually made of a whole piece of jade and does not need to be cut. Since there is no need to consider the risk of cutting, as long as the skin is beautiful. Even a little crack or impurities can be cleverly avoided in the carved design. Therefore, compared with bracelets and brands, the requirements for jade texture are slightly lower, as long as the handle is the right size. There are certain requirements for the size of the material.
Pendants are generally small and can be processed using leftovers from making large pieces of jade. There are no big requirements for the size and size of the jade. Whether it is from the perspective of the texture or collection value of jade, it is not as good as the previous types. Of course, if the material is very good, that's a different story. In fact, there are smaller jade leftovers that can be used to process beads of different diameters, and the same diameter is strung together to form a bracelet or necklace.
In fact, the statement of "one device, two bracelets, three cards, four pieces, and five pendants" is only a primary and general definition, and it is mainly applicable to ordinary players in the field of modern jade collection. Objectively speaking, although this statement is not rigorous enough, it conforms to the general law of value, and there is still some truth.
Whether it is jade utensils, jade bracelets, jade plates or jade handles, they all have high requirements for Hetian jade raw materials. If the quality of the jade is not high, the quantity of the raw material is insufficient, or the jade material is too flawed, it will not be possible to make a good work of art.
In today's expensive high-quality Hetian jade, if you want to make perfect quality jade, bracelets, jade plates and jade handles, it means higher production costs. This also determines the expensive value of the above-mentioned jade. Therefore, there is a saying of "one device, two bracelets, three cards, four pieces, and five pendants".