Happy Chinese New Year! With jade being a popular gift in Chinese culture it’s the perfect time to share my latest creative travel experience – jade carving in New Zealand.
Jade is more commonly known as Greenstone in New Zealand, or Pounamu in Maori. The art of Jade carving in New Zealand has been practiced for thousands of years, with many a piece holding a spiritual significance.
Carved pieces can be found in jewellers, souvenir shops and museums all over New Zealand and these make great gifts. Often more than just a souvenir, jade is also believed to have healing powers. However, there is a lot which is actually carved from jade which is sourced from China and elsewhere. So before you purchase a jade carving in New Zealand check the authenticity.
I’d booked myself into a jade carving workshop for a New Year’s day, whilst visiting Hokitika on the West coast of New Zealand. What really made this a special experience was the fact that just a few days earlier, whilst searching the beach at Ship Creek, near to Haast on the West coast, I found a piece of jade.
In fact, it turned out that I found 4 pieces. Whether, like the Maori I believe it actually found me is another matter. At the time I was chuckling away to myself as I filled my pocket with a bunch of, what would seem to most as, pebbles with a greenish tinge. I was hopeful that there might just be one piece of jade in there that I could carve for myself.
Where to find jade in New Zealand
Most of the jade in New Zealand is nephrite. Although bowenite jade can also be found at Milford Sound. It’s possible to fossick greenstone or punamu ethically along the beaches, but only a maori tribe can legally extract it from rivers and elsewhere. This also protects the integrity and sustainability of the stone as it’s supply is diminishing around the world.
The west coast of the south island is the best place to find jade in New Zealand. Check out 10 tips to find Greenstone in Hokitika. With Hokitika being jade country almost every other shop there is selling it. Of course there are many other places around New Zealand where you can purchase jade, but it’s custom not to buy it for yourself. Although there are ways around this of course.
Where to go for a jade carving workshop in New Zealand
More and more workshops are available around the country, offering a carving experience. One of the longest running places is Bonz N Stonz in Hokitika, which is where I went along with my bag of stones. Of course, they supply the jade for carving, and that was my original intention when booking the workshop. And I did feel a little silly pulling these out for identification at first.
Planning
Having an idea of what you want to carve is a good plan. I knew I wanted to create something which was a combination of the traditional Maori hei matau and koru designs. Read more on the shades of jade and meanings behind greenstone pendants.
Sketching out the design is the hardest part, so I chose to keep it fairly simple. I’ve learnt this is important when getting creative with something new.
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- sketch
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- sizing
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- design on stone
Cutting and carving
With a little guidance it was actually much easier than I expected to grind the rough shape around the outline. We used diamond disks with running water so that the heat wouldn’t damage the stone whilst we worked.
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- cutting
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- carving
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- progress
The carving was done with drill bits, with intricate diamond burs. We had further help to carefully work through the stone, to then work around the design and shape the pendant.
Polishing
As the stone can be rough, there is a great deal of buffing and polishing needed to smooth the edges to finish things off. At this stage it seemed like there was always more that could be done, but it’s really important not to over do it.
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- front
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- back
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- done
I’d highly recommend jade carving in New Zealand. Jade carving in New Zealand is a unique experience and a memory to take home, as well as what you create. I’m completely attached to my new pendant now. Although I initially gifted it to my other half, just to make sure there wasn’t any chance of bad luck. It’s a great story to tell and definitely one of my highlights from my 6 weeks in New Zealand.
Check back for more creative travels.
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