»Concentration and experience play crucial roles in the art of jade carving.

»Concentration and experience play crucial roles in the art of jade carving.

CONCENTRATION and experience play crucial roles in the art of jade carving but the business aspect of the industry is more like gambling, an artist at busy jade factory in Mandalay told Myanmar Times last month.

Ko Win Kyaw was born in the remote village of Nan Si Aung in Sagaing Division to parents involved in the jade business, so he has been familiar with jade and other coloured gemstones from a young age.

He said carving jade figurines required years of experience, and the learning never ends.

Kyauk Sein Nagar, the factory where he has worked since it opened five years ago, produces jade bracelets, parquet flooring, traditional Chinese figurines, cups and Buddha statues.

Bracelets account for majority of the factory’s production, followed by figurines of various shapes and sizes.

“A jade carver needs about one month of training before becoming reliable in the parquet department, while three months of experience is required to be eligible for the bracelet department and about six months for the cup department,” Ko Win Kyaw said.

As the head of the figurine department, he is the most experienced among the Myanmar staff at the factory. Several experts have also been hired from China.
“It takes at least three years just to become a beginner for carving jade figurines associated with Chinese traditions and beliefs,” he said.

Ko Win Kyaw said determination combined with devout religious practices like taking Sabbath and keeping the five Buddhist precepts contributed to finishing the products more quickly and skillfully.

“Once we get the dimensions of a specific order, it normally takes about 10 days to finish. We use diamond-tipped drills and cutters for different figurines,” he said.

The job of carving requires an artist’s skills and a combined knowledge of painting and sculpture, he said.

The Kyauk Sein Nagar factory supplies both local and foreign markets, including China, Taiwan and Thailand. It also sells raw jade stone that comes from its production blocks in Kachin State.

There are about 100 small and medium-sized jade carving factories and workshops similar to Kyauk Sein Nagar in Mandalay.

Daw Thida Swe from the OK jade carving factory said business has been weak since 2003 because of the effects of SARS on the tourism industry in the important Taiwan, China and Hong Kong markets.

Although sales to tourists have dropped off, Chinese people continue to spend money on traditional figures.

The most difficult aspect of jade carving work is judging the quality of the rough jade stones.

The Kyauk Sein Nagar factory gets large, raw jade stone from Kachin State’s Phakant and Nat Hmaw mines.

Once the stones arrive the factory, they are cut by a motorized saw. This is one of the most important aspects of the jade carving business. In most cases the quality of a raw stone cannot be judged superficially since the colour, fire and luster become apparent only after it is cut.

Daw Thida Swe said judging the value of rough jade is like gambling since the quality of the stone inside is unpredictable.

“A rough stone bought for K500,000 could be revealed to be worth K500 million when it is cut,” she said.

After the stone is cut experts scrutinise the quality before making the crucially important decision of what stone should be used for what kind of carving.
U Than Htike, a manager at Kyauk Sein Nagar factory, said that the price of a bracelet could range from K5000 up to K3 million depending on the quality of the stone.

Marketing the finished work is the final important step, and the value of a piece partly depends on the tastes of potential buyer. One buyer may be willing to pay K1 million for a particular piece, while another might be reluctant to part with K100,000 for a similar item.