A water-color jade piece with a cartoon dragon design. An art piece made of water-color jade can fetch about 10,000 yuan ($1,570) in Yunnan's jade market. [Photo/China Daily]

Green gems hit a record high in price, leaving little room for appreciation

Water-color jade's popularity is expected to increase compared to green jade, which has hit a record-high price, according to a top jade-carving artist.

Chinese jade carving master Wang Chaoyang told China Daily in an exclusive interview that water-color jade is the "most beautiful and pure" jade.

He said that it not only has a clean and bright appearance, comparable to crystal, but that it comes from a mineral associated with green jade.

And it's also as hard as green jade, only with a relatively lower density, he added.

"But in the market, the price of water-color jade is 1 percent of the price of green jade due to lack of media attention and low public recognition," he said.

Jade sculpting dates back to ancient China, when the emperor and the noble classes enjoyed wearing and owning accessories and ornaments made of the stone, such as the Hetian jade from the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, which represented their identity and status.

"Nowadays, the people's favorite, green-color jade, represents their personalities. But the post-modern Chinese are pursuing pure elegance, and some kind of free-flowing fame or fortune - just like a piece of clear water-color jade" Wang said.

Water-color jade hasn't yet caught public attention, and there are almost no top-class sculptures made of the material in the market, Wang said.

"Many businessmen refuse to trade water-color jade due to its low profit margins," he said.

A top-class green-jade pendant costs at least 100,000 yuan ($15,873), but the price can go up to several hundred thousand yuan for pieces with more elaborate designs.

However, for water-color jade pieces with similar quality, the material costs 1,000 yuan, and they will only sell for about 10,000 yuan after being sculpted, so many people don't want to trade the material, Wang said.

"Carved sculptures with high-quality water-color jade shine brilliantly, are even more impressive than the green jade pieces, and seem more valuable," he said. "Unlike green jade, the water-color pieces are transparent, and it's easy to express ideas through them."

Innovation and emotions have become the eternal themes of Wang's works.

"The biggest difference between artwork and crafts lies in the ideas behind them, and only if one piece of craft is filled with emotion and true feelings can it be nurtured as an artwork, " he said.