WHO WE ARE
Woven Stone Jade Limited is a small, one-carver company based in Greymouth on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island, within the renowned Marsden jade field. More than merely another carving business reproducing the Maori designs so common to the New Zealand jade industry, we strive to produce a mix of designs from the broadly traditional through to the unique and the interpretive, and to produce work of such quality that it can rightly be considered of heirloom status in years to come.
Unlike many New Zealand jade carvers, the vast majority of the stone we carve at Woven Stone Jade Limited is local New Zealand nephrite jade or bowenite. We source the majority of this material from local gatherers who have the mana whenua right to collect it from our local rivers and forests. We source the rest through purchase from old-timer legal miners of the resource. Where another material (or jade of foreign origin) is used, we state the material's actual nature and origin under our work's description every time. As such, those purchasing from us can rest assured that their ethically-sourced, hand-carved piece of genuine New Zealand nephrite jade or bowenite really is exactly that.
Amhairghen Faithliaig - Jade Carver
(Pronouced A - vir - in fey - LEE - uh)
I'm a New Zealand-born carver who's been engaged in the lapidary arts since age 11. With 37 years of involvement in lapidary, I've gained extensive experience in the cabochon cutting and carving of materials as diverse as agates, sapphires, opals, emeralds and whalebone, as well as nephrite and jadeite jades. My principle love is the carving of nephrite jade; and I returned to New Zealand and came to the West Coast in 2012 specifically to pursue this as my career.
Since then, I've completed both the Certificate and Diploma courses in Jade and Hard Stone Carving at Tai Poutini Polytechnic; and since 2015 I've worked as a professional carver of nephrite, jadeite, bowenite and even opal under local master carver Ian Boustridge. Now I'm starting my own carving studio, and looking forward to many adventures with the stone under my own steam.
Thane Bage - IT Technician
I've always loved working with computers ever since I can remember. Graduating from Tai Poutini Polytechnic's Information Technology course, I put my skills into creating the website you're browsing right now.
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Amhairghen makes the spectacular artwork, and I connect them with customers like you. Showing them off in social media, shipping them to you, and being there to chat if you have any concerns or questions.
WHAT WE MAKE
Since we cater mainly to direct sale to the public, our business concentrates largely around those types of carvings the general public wants to buy... which in the main is items of jewellery such as pendants, bracelets, rings and similar articles.
However, as an artistic concern, we're also inclined to produce sculptures and other artistic works in jade, with the majority of that artistic work being created in what's known as the Naive Style. Our sculptures tend to be on the smaller side of such works: figurines to small sculptural works that wouldn't feel out of place in a workplace office or the living areas of a well-appointed home. When possible, we strive to ensure that we have at least a small selection of unique works of this type.
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We also provide a re-cording service for those whose pendants need a replacement cord, and we produce cabochons and other pre-cut stones for fitting into commercial or private pieces of jewellery. The latter are available to the general public as well as to members of the jewellery industry.
What is Naive Style?
Contrary to how it sounds, Naive Art isn't actually all that naive; in fact, it's rather sophisticated. Naive Art or the Naive Style is best described as the use of simplicity of form to convey power of sentiment and expression of meaning.
Take this image of the Moai heads of Rapanui/Easter Island, for example. These are carved in an expression of the Naive Style. Their form lacks any appeal to realism, decoration is minimal to non-existent and the work is somewhat blockish compared to that seen in many other artistic styles. And yet, the simple form of the Moai heads carries in that simplicity such a sense of power and nobility that their appeal is near-universal. Complexity is so unnecessary to their form that it could only seek to make them lesser artistic works.
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It is this powerful simplicity that we at Woven Stone Jade Limited seek to capture in the majority of our pieces: a power from minimalism that manages to outweigh that of more complex artistic forms, and that renders our interpretive sculptures truly unique as a result.
