Michael,

One of our stops on the way to the Ming tombs yesterday was a jade factory. I had no idea what to expect, thinking it would be all solid green statues, but I was wrong. The jade factory guide showed us yellow, white and red jade. A yellow jade buddha was translucent, and seemed to glow from within. Then she showed us a soccerball-sized sphere with 12 holes where you could see that inside there were 8 other nested spheres. I’d seen these things in wood and ivory before, but jade? Must be hard getting the little dremel drills, or whatever they use, inside the outer spheres.

But then we were directed to watch the artisans at work. Two of them were sitting at lathes, picking their way into the innards of nested spheres. The other artisans were also using lathes to make horses, buddhas, necklaces and jewelry of all sorts. The artisans didn’t seem to mind having us peering down at them (through a glass wall). They paused often in apparent contemplation between drillings and cuttings. One slip-up, and a day’s or a week’s work could be ruined.

The factory walls and floor looked like a museum of Chinese art. Some of the jade pieces, like a giant eagle, and a herd of galloping horses, must have weighed a ton. The nicest piece there was of variegated colors (jadite)–gray, red, green–of a great cat with the natural rock colors matching the coloration of a real cat. And his feet were cunningly embedded in the niches of a piece of polished driftwood.

The 9-fold nested spheres are pretty expensive ($hundreds) but I was able to pick up a nice 3-fold nested sphere for $10. I also got some gifts to bring home.

–rakkity