18Th Annual Jade Festival At Big Sur

When True Jade Aficionados Meet

People out ‘high-grading’ hours before the show starts. When jade is in your blood sometimes you just can’t help yourself. On Friday the 9Th of October the show officially started at 12PM but the crowds were already starting, as usual, at 8AM. A totally unique show to America’s Passion for Jade and Jadeite in one of the only places in the Americas to have an in-situ supply of the “Stone of Heaven”. Located just above Jade Cove, at the Pacific Valley School grounds, which has donated the use of this beautiful spot for 18 years to true Jade Lovers from around the world, this is one of only two true Jade shows in this Country that cater to all aspects of the Jade world. From Miners to Jade Carvers and True Jade Artisans of International Status to dealers in exotic stones and crafts to invited dealers in Authentic Artifacts of Jade masterpieces of the past, there is truly  a whole lot of something for everyone at this unique and exciting venue. It is organized every year by the Big Sur Jade Festival Committee and spearheaded by Kirk Brock of Rock Solid Jade, well known and respected by all the true jade lovers in America (don’t miss the upcoming article on Kirk’s old Clear Creek, California Jadeite samples coming soon here at Timeless Jade).

With three solid days of Music, Food, Crafts, Jade and More Jade, and More Jade Still, it is a time of such fun and camaraderie  that one never forgets, through all the madness of setting up and breaking down the displays every day, just why we all meet in such a glorious setting. This wonderful show provides us every year with beautiful weather to display our passions, meet new people, cuss and discuss Jades from the early morning to late night and enjoy, as the great Fred Ward puts it, “Everything from Billionaires to Belly-Dancers”.  Friendships forged at this show last a lifetime, and now showing up are the children and grandchildren of the original ‘pioneers’ who started, believed, displayed and worked to make this one of most unique shows in the world. However, everyone did miss Sam Gitchel of River Blossom Jade and his marvelous specimens of Botryoidal Jade, so fix that old back, Sam, and quit jumping out of helicopters to snatch those 400 pound boulders.

While many of the Jade Elitists of the business come and go from year to year, it is the great and passionate ‘mainstays’ that make this show what it is to us who love Jade more than sustenance at times, although it is quite clear from the above picture that Dan Beck has a deep passion for both. It is from the great and unassuming Kirk Makepeace of Jade West Mines (largest jade mine owner in the world) to all the miners, divers and collectors who bring out their finest specimens for this show – to the Individual Masters of the Jade Artist Class who provide us with so much inspiration each year (so much inspiration in fact, that their newest designs often start coming out of Thailand, mass-produced, in a matter of weeks after this show, and our annual “Jade Through The Ages Show“). To meet the sparkling personalities of the actual people who literally have risked life, limb and fortune in bringing out the finest Jadeite samples the world has ever seen; to hearing their fascinating stories and the work done to help (the likes of G. E. Harlow of the American Museum of Natural History of New York and S. S. Sorensen, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, on their fabulous studies on Nephrite, Jadeite and Jadeitites). It is always a pleasure to see Peter (Pedro) Lee and Dick Mandell (congratulations on your 90th birthday, Dick), see (and purchase) their wonderful specimens at both the Jade Festival and at our show, as it not only adds to the ‘ambiance’ of the Festival, but without their wonderful stones, the Artists would have less material with which to create their masterpieces. I also would like to take this time to thank all of the great friends who have been following Timeless Jade and have recently donated many unique specimens of Nephrite Jade and Jadeite for ‘Timeless Jade’, to bring to the world under conditions that very few have the capability to examine. So, be looking for more articles this year on Jade and Jadeite specimens, some of which the world has never seen. And while it is nearly impossible to mention everyone of you true Jade Purists by name, we at Timeless Jade truly do appreciate all that everyone has done for so many years, so unselfishly, and wish all of you many years of continued success in your explorative endeavors and efforts to heighten the awareness of both Nephrite and Jadeite, and the wonderful art produced in these media.

Jade Through The Ages Show

Dante Lopez of Cancun, Mexico and Dante’s Studio is one of the newest members to the JadeArtNow.com group and member of our fourth annual Jade Show – “Jade Through The Ages Show”. Dante was an absolute ‘hit’ this year at the Festival, showing his tremendous gem quality pieces of Guatemalan Jadeite, some as pure and translucent as anything that has ever come out of Burma. That’s Internationally Famous Jade Sculptress Deborah Wilson in the background admiring one of Dante’s pieces.

As we promote the Big Sur Jade Festival all year long at our Gallery and through our multiple web sites, Kirk Brock of the Jade Festival also promotes our show, as together we have the only two true Jade Shows in America each year (although we hear there is another starting in the San Francisco area, to which we wish the best of luck). We have changed the name of our show from Jade Art Now to Jade Through The Ages in an attempt to draw a larger crowd for the benefit of those truly interested in Jade, and will include a massive selection of jades through the ages, going back in time some 8,000 years. We hope this will also draw the attention of other venues such as Public and Private Museums so the show can eventually become a traveling show to help spread the art to other parts of the USA and abroad. As an entity, Antiquities, Plus… has always funded this show exclusively, and has never charged a rental space fee or commission to the artists who participate. We truly have always supported the artists as our way of giving back to those who have provided us such joy and knowledge. However, if anyone one out there would like to help in the promotion of a larger venue along the above mentioned lines, and for the true spreading of the art, all the artists who spend such an incredible amount of time promoting jade would be appreciative. We believe the combined efforts of the 15-20 top Internationally known artists and others that make their way into this group, an exciting and growing showcase of Original Fine Art, would make for a top presentation and draw for any Museum with a passion for Jade.  We are very proud to currently be the only Jade Artifact Dealer the ‘core’ artists will show alongside with, but have no wish to be the only one. We would love to see a company such as Sam Bernstein’s bernsteinjadeart.com (who did so much for the early artists in his many fine publications, and also represented some of them) join in with us, or another fine arts dealer on the East Coast, to help develop and show their artifacts and promote the show further. If there is any interest from those who read this website please contact david@antiquitiesplus.com. Did I mention Corporate Sponsorship yet? Seriously, those of us who are trying to promote both Jades and the Artists who have made such an impact on art though the ages, in one of the hardest mediums in the world to work with, wish to take this project further and are looking for ways to promote  the art and the people or institutions who might wish to help.

As the Big Sur Jade Festival has been booked up for years, it has taken quite a bit of time to be able to ‘finagle’ three contiguous booth spaces out of Mr. Brock, but this year the “Gods’ were with us as we finally got our wish to bring our core group of artists together for the first time at the festival. Peter and Stephanie Schilling of Taking Form Jade both work full time at the Harvard University’s incredible museums, with Peter working on all the changing displays at the Fogg and Sackler Museums for years (including the finest selection of archaic jades outside of China). Stephanie works in the financial end at the Harvard Museums, and together they put on one of the finest displays of contemporary jade carvings at both our show and at the Big Sur Jade Festival. How Peter can work a full time position and still show up bringing in excess of 200 pieces is mind-boggling to everyone, and his loose grit polishing method is as fine as it gets anywhere in the world. Truly a master of the ‘simple form’, Peter broke all his own records at this year’s show, and his reputation as a “World Class” Jade Carver is far overdue. It is truly an honor to have Peter and Stephanie as our personal “booth mates’ every year. Quiet and unassuming, generous and knowledgeable, Peter is in a class all by himself and respected by  everyone in the Jade World, from the top to the bottom.

Having the ‘core’ members of the Jade Through The Ages Show all together in one spot at this year’s Big Sur Jade Festival was truly a dream come true. While Matt Glasby and Justin Barrett have had their own booths at the Festival for years and could not make it over to ours this year, we hope that in the future, we can all be located next to each other to make our presence even more impressive. While our ‘high end’ only show in Tucson every year brings some of the best 15-20 artists in the world together at one fantastic showing, we as a group are always looking for new, original talent and would love to see some of the extremely talented new artists from China that are beginning to bring to light passionate, original works of contemporary Jade Craftsmanship, as well as other artists from around the globe. We also show works of Jade Art created by the early masters in America like Warren Rees, and this year we are proud to represent the work of John Snook (now 60 years young – sorry John) who first started mining jade with his father in Wyoming when he was 12 years old. John also made and sold his first two creations that year, a jade cabochon and a jade ring. We are currently trying to chase down some more of the ‘old fathers’ of American Jade Carvings, some of which are currently in museums in the US. Anyone reading this who might have some contacts or further information is invited to contact us, as we would very much be interested in an ‘on loan’ agreement with these institutions or individuals. Again, we can be reached at david@antiquitiesplus.com. In the above photo we see again Peter and Stephanie Shilling talking to one of the Worlds Finest Sculptors – Georg Schmerholz of Transylvania and the USA. Georg’s body of fantastic work can be previewed at his two websites http://schmerholz.com & http://jadefineart.com . In the background of the last photo we have true jade aficionados in Rudy Estrada (red hat) and Frank Marquez (black hat). Talking to them are Deborah Wilson of British Columbia and Donn Salt (‘the man in black’ bent over) of New Zealand – two of the most published Jade artists in the world, and members of the core group and voting council, as are Peter, Georg and myself. Seated at the far left is jadeite hunter extraordinaire, Dick Mandell. Also, while everyone touched and thought the pumpkin was made of green jade with an orange skin – it was just a pumpkin that gave us hours of comic relief.

Showing in the center of the second photograph of this article is the 128 pound white with red rind Khotan Hetian (ying yu) Nephrite boulder. It did not make it to the end of the show, being snatched up by a collector. Also, having K. C. Bell Of KCB Natural Pearls and his friend come to spend a couple of days with us was like having our own cheering section behind us. We have been working the last two years authenticating K. C. Bells 30 year collection of stone artifacts from around the globe and this year he brought me a wonderful Chinese rhyton cup, of which we have already verified, as I wanted to do a Timeless Jade article on it alone. It is the oldest Rhyton I have personally ever seen and the article’s photography will be unique, to say the least. After the article we will also be representing the piece for sale. It will be a great opportunity to preview such an artifact before it hits the “market”.

This display has always been a “hoot” at the two Festivals we have presented it. In this year’s display I added a ‘ringer’, as I always do, with both examples being real, and a ‘hidden’ surprise where both items were real but of different eras. So many people get a kick out this display, and it is usually the  novices that get the highest percentage of right answers, as the ‘experts’ always try to figure out more of how I arranged it and the ‘little old ladies’ just go with their ‘gut’ feelings. But almost everyone has enjoyed this case the most, as it is displayed as a fun game  that truly educates.

As in our Gallery, and on the web site of antiquitiesplus.com, every piece we sell comes with a 100% guarantee on the item itself, against any authority in the world. This guarantee travels through successive buyers, and even auction houses, and rests with the owner in whose hands it currently is.

Wyoming ‘Edward’s” Black Nephrite alongside of Chinese Khotan White (ying yu) and Black Nephrite Boulders with multicolored Pebbles from China and a few accent artifacts for “color”.  As Khotan Jades have never really been seen anywhere near this degree at the Jade Festival, they made quite a hit with the crowds, and many of the Carvers went home with some new material they had never carved before. Hopefully we will see some new Khotan creations at the next Jade Through The Ages Show. One piece of polished ‘Edward’s’ black is in route for permanent display at Pierre Savoie’s Musee du Jade museedujade.com in Quebec, Canada.

This huge and rare Black Khotan Hetian Nephrite Jade boulder can be seen at Antiquities, Plus… Gallery in Tucson. Arizona. We also have one about 4 times as large. Now if we could only find a yellow boulder that big!

From left to right: Peter Schilling  / Deborah Wilson / Donn Salt / Justin Barrett / David Fredericks / Dante’ Lopez / Georg Schmerholz – Missing in Action – Matt Glasby and 15-20 others who will be at the Jade Through The Ages Show

PS: We would also like to thank from the bottom our hearts, Cedric Felix for guarding the Gallery, the Home, the Plants and ‘Scarfy’ while we were away; Mr. Fred Gumbart (our Ethnographic Director) for all he did for us from start to finish (sorry about the bad back Fred), and for helping us at the Festival; Dr. Timothy Jones (our PhD. and Director of Anthropology & Archeology) for staying home and getting his daughter married off, & Ms. Patty Malcom without whose help and guardianship, this year’s show would have been so much more difficult to have accomplished. Her staying on site and helping with the loading and unloading of our artifacts every day helped us immensely and ensured our safety on the drives home every night. And last, but definitely not least, everyone of us, including all the artists, would like thank Melissa McIntire for being there for all of our needs, for without her being there for all of us it would probably all fall apart. We would also, like to thank “The Naked Jade Carver” for all he has done to help these fine international artists ‘become all they can be’!

David Fredericks  –  Yulongwei

Antiquities, Plus…

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