Master Chen
Master Chen is the fourth in his family to do this work. He grew up in the sound of the polishing wheel — in a household where jade was not a business so much as a language, spoken at the bench and around the table in equal measure.
at the bench
first cut
away
His grandfather’s hand, still on the shelf.
His grandfather kept ink drawings of every cut he ever made — angle, weight, the grain of each stone recorded by hand. Those drawings still sit on the workshop shelf, and Master Chen still consults them.
A problem at the bench today, more often than not, was solved once before — sixty years ago, in his grandfather’s careful hand.
His mother read the stone first.
She handled the negotiating in the valley until 2019 — every rough that came into the studio passed first through her judgement. Her notebooks, full of prices, sources, and the quiet politics of the jade market, are kept in the archive.
Master Chen learned to read a stone at her side long before he was allowed to cut one.
“My grandfather taught me to cut.
My mother taught me what to cut.
The rest I am still learning.” — Master Chen
Slow, and unapologetic about it.
A piece may sit on the bench for weeks while he decides where the first cut should fall. He turns down far more rough than he keeps. The pieces that do leave the studio carry, somewhere in them, the weight of everything that was rejected to find them.
He rarely signs his work, and never poses for the camera willingly. The pieces, he says, are the only signature that matters.
See the work for yourself.
Browse pieces finished by Master Chen’s hand, or read the story of the house he carries forward.
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