Cat's Eye Jade by White Wolf Trading Company offers high-quality, handcarved jade jewelry at reasonable prices, as well as finished jade pieces for jewelers and raw jade for carvers. It is the result of my long-standing relationship with this beautiful gemstone.

When I began dealing in Siberian Nephrite about fifteen years ago it was because of the enjoyment experienced in the cutting and because of the beauty of the finished pieces. I was initially fascinated by the more chatoyant rough and spent several years cutting nothing but catseyes from the longer fibered actinolite laden subspecies  of Siberian nephrite. Over the years my interest was captured more and more by the various colors of gem-grade bright green, grey, yellow and blue green material which, although less chatoyant, are capable of being carved into more intricate shapes due to their tighter grain structure and higher tremolite content.

Nephrite jade has fallen into general disrepute over the years as it is difficult to carve, and while there is a great deal of it in the world, there is relatively little Gem Grade material, i.e. material that is superior in color and translucence.  Dark dull jade will still exhibit jade’s legendary toughness and ability to be transformed into almost any shape that the human imagination can devise, but it is still dark and dull.

Since the fall of the iron curtain, however, jade has been available in such quality that it amounts  to virtually a new gem material discovery, rivaling even the finest jadeite in color and translucence and unsurpassed in its ability to maintain its structural integrity whether carved as thin as a leaf or in the most oblique of curves or angles.

The thrust of this business for the last fifteen years has been the import of rough boulders of catseye and bright green nephrite from the Lake Baikal region of Siberia. Many of the pictures in the Gallery on this site document the mining region, techniques and finished pieces of nephrite from this area. Primarily I have processed the boulders into slabs and cubes for resale to other lapidaries, and sold modest amounts of my own carvings. Slowly I have come to the conclusion that there is not enough manufacturing of this type going on in this country and I have moved into becoming a more manufacturing-based business. In part this is because gem-grade material is getting harder to find in Siberia and the future supply is uncertain.

For this reason I have decided to make the sale of manufactured items the primary focus for the future of this business. It has taken several years to set up this manufacturing base and train cutters who can do high quality work. I did not feel the world needed more cheap, poorly-made jade jewelry, and together with my work force we have struggled to provide a product worthy of the material. We have weathered a steep learning curve, and although we are still dealing with a very high waste-to-finished-product ratio I am very pleased to bring to the market a very well made product from a very superior material.

Jade is difficult to cut and polish because it is a very complex intertwining of two  basic mineral components, tremolite and actinolite, woven together under metamorphic pressures, in a manner similar to how ordinary limestone under metamorphic conditions becomes marble. It is the intertwining of the tremolite and actinolite fibers which gives jade its tremendous toughness and ability to be carved into almost any shape no matter how delicate, and still stay together at thicknesses and in designs that would stress other materials to the breaking point. While not the hardest of minerals it is the toughest and so the best three-dimensional medium for expressing the human imagination. This is why it was so sought after as a source of material for weapons as well as art .

I hope you will enjoy the site. We have jewelry and rough jade for sale and many pictures of ancient and modern jade works, some by artist-unknown, some contemporary . If you wish to purchase jade the best thing is either to email me at Kenaii@earthlink.net  or call me in Pennsylvania  at 215-346-7099. Payment can be made via personal check, credit card, or pay-pal.

Best Wishes,

Richard