The process of working with jade

Nowadays, the stones are subjected to a process of  selection that starts from the beds in Chalchuitan Chiapas and the riverbasin of Motagua in Guatemala. After arriving in the workshops of the House of Jade, the stones are placed in a machine where they are passed through a diamante saw of 92 cms diameter square which is submerged in a mixture of natural oils and water, that cuts the stone in plates of diverse thickness.

When the plates are ready, the best part of them are selected, ensuring that each one has no impurities like quartz, mica, cristilized carbon etc. Then one proceeds to draw the desired design on the plate of Jade with aliminium mine, taking care to not draw on the natural fissures or fractures of the stone.

Immediately with small diamante saws each piece is separated individually,cutting only in a straight line keeping as close as close as possible to the drawing.

The shape of the final design, is obtained by cutting with fine esmeril diamond wheels  that electroinically turn at 1800 revolutions per minute, carefully coroding it until reaching the desired form.

The shine is attained with four sandpapers of different calibr with very fine abrasives made of silicon carbon,  chrome oxide and ruby dust.

To obtain the final shine, bands of leather are used which are dampened in vegetable oils onto which dust of industrial diamond dust is applied, that is how it obtains its maximum shine, guaranteed for eternity as this shine is never lost.

The process of prehispanic work in Jade

If jade is not engraved as it should be, it is not transformed into jewellery. This hard stone , formed by nature over thousands of years, must be engraved and polished properly to bring out the shine and the richness that make it so valued. Modern technology and knowledge of the traditional arts is giving way to surprising creations and makes this gem accessible to everyone which before was exclusively available to the nobles and emperors.

Our ancestors used silica dust, and dust of obsidian, granate quartz and the same jade ( very dark black jade or green jade because they are the hardest type),  that were spread to ropes of ixteles with animal fat and vegetable gum in which they could take out the sap which was obtained from the bulb of the orchid Tzacutli (epidendrum pastoris),  which were engraved in a process of friction that could take years, until being able to give shape to these hard stones.

Tools in the shape of a bow made of wood were also used with a piece of leather to work jade.

One of the characteristics of the precolombian pieces is that if they have holes, these have to be conical,  as to make the holes, they used hard wood of the chicozapote, combined with the mineral salts already mentioned. The constant friction gave it a matt touch.