Featured Possibly Best Crystal Carving Anywhere

Crystal carving, it’s a big world and these are lofty claims but I wouldn’t post this here if it wasn’t something special.

WingWen I’m told is ranked among the best Crystal carvers in the world this is some of his work images are a mix of my pictures, images from a book a friend of mine wrote, and images provided by the Artist, I have permission to use all of these pictures.

his studio is in central China I believe near Nian, I’ve been to his studio several times but travel around China can get confusing and I don’t remember the exact location but we are friends with a number of jade carvers in this area there and many carving studios, and enormous jade market under a large tent that covers more than the size of 2 football fields as well as several square city block area of hard wall shops, open air booths and dozens of small factories dedicated to selling , jade blanks a large percentage of which are fake treated and/or aged destined to shops in tourist areas everywhere. There is also street food a lot of it middle eastern that’s a heavy influence as many dealers from border countries frequent the markets.

the most remarkable carvings are made from enormous flawless crystals from Brazil many upwards of 5 ton each saved from the mine for this artist. These large crystals are studied for years before carving begins. A team of carvers working directly under the master will spend 2 to 3 years carving one of these large crystals before polishing can commence, polish is meticulously done by hand with small sanding strips back and forth switching across the previous stroke each grit change and the polishing process will take another 2 to 3 years.

I don’t know the final price in these money alone will not get you one.

wingWen picking from his garden, his studio in the background

carving this was his #1 student now running his own studio


various Crystal carvings… there are also jade and coral these focus on his crystal.

 

If you want to be wowed, scroll through this search of the collections of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

 

Those are all beautiful works and thank you for the link.

Im curious I’m pretty wowed by a lot of the art in this world the museum in Vienna is no exception what are your criteria… what is your wow factor. For me all the museum pieces are beautiful and this is personal taste I guess, maybe as a craftsman my appreciation of certain technical perfection wows me, or finding surprises within the intricate detail I didn’t expect to see, teach me what wows you about those works, the history, design and execution, I can certainly appreciate the accomplishment against the scientific and technical challenges of the time.

What’s your comparison?

 

What treasures ! Id happily own any of it.

 

Wowser, those are amazing pieces @Desertau , thank-you for sharing them

 

These are same artists studio in some more crystal and a little coral and Jade.

 

I see now that my post may have come off as competitive, my amazing artist is better than your amazing artist. My intention was to share some more work that I appreciate for the same things: artistry of design; technical skill of execution; collaboration with the medium that integrates the imagination with the material.

 

The museum pieces are incredible please post more of these amazing artworks, the Jeweled mechanical scientific art wows me and the very tall crystal spire amazing.

 

A thought on investing in Jades from observations traveling across China, it’s very difficult to sell the average carving in average quality Jade and make much money you are competing in a huge extremely competitive market and many unscrupulous dealers, I’m talking more about my experience in China. I joined a tour group just to spend some time over there with other English speaking people. We stopped in one town for a shopping excursion every tour goes shopping because the tour operators get a kickback from the shops… you’ll go shopping a lot. My wife and I followed the group into one shop where one of the group had come to a deal on a white carved jade pendant for $500 secretly we warned her to wait. My wife and I went back later and wound up talking to the owner and he invited us into the back room, the best stuff is always in the back room. He had a nice antique amber necklace we bought and a couple other things we paid a few hundred dollars for, on the way out he gave us the exact pendant from earlier that was $500 for free. It was an inexpensive tourist (pretty) item, we gave it to the lady from the tour and she was thrilled, but we warned her to be more carful.

the best material and carving is expensive but there are many people with a lot of money competing for this high quality it is much easier to sell when you want or need to.

 

Thank you, Desertau for showing us Wingwen's carvings! I'd not heard of him before. His work is as amazing as it is gorgeous.

 

There is a group we have become good friends with, equally great work one of the artists gained im told national treasure status a few years ago his name is Zhang Kerzow(sp) I may not be exact spelling his first name (last name first in Chinese) he carves a lot of multi color jades but carves around the color adjust carving to match the unknown color as it reveals itself in the process. These guys are all good friends and have their own studios in the same city. ShouBo creates beautiful flowers, GouHa works in the best white Hetian Jade and ShouChan a variety of jade and his wife manages the huge jade market under the tent. I’ll add some of their work to this thread later and some interesting pictures form inside the studios of work in progress where there is insight into the process and carving tools. This is stuff you won’t see on a tour.

 

Alessandro Masnago was an early 17th century gem engraver who used stone like no one else I've encountered.

 

pretty amazing and no power tools, he probably used some foot powered treadle type drill Motor and abrasive grit paste to do all that too. Just imagine the hours hunched over a dimly lit work bench making those treasures.