14 — Friday, March 26. 1999 — North Shore News B.C.’s jade worked locally, sold internationally Layne Christensen NEWS Reporter layne@usnews.com Much of the world’s best jade is mined in northern B.C. A huge cache of “green gold” was discov- ered at Ogden Mountain in the late “60s. As North Van jade sculptor Lyle Sopel tells the story, it was a Californian school teacher who made the discovery. He came north for a wilderness experience, RAW jade awaits the creator's hand in the North Van workshop of Lyle Sope). opened a grocery store and befriended a gold miner with a “worthless” claim. The miner gave the teacher his claim. The Califormian discovered that the green boulders blankcting the creek bed were jade. He alerted the inter- national marketplace. The world took notice. “People would fly into the site with bricf- cases of moncy,” says Sopel, who has worked the semi-precious stonc into highly coveted sculptures since the *70s. “It created big inter- est in jade from Canada.” Such is the highly competitive market for Grade A jade. Known as the stonc of heaven and revered by ancient cultures as more precious than gold, jade is becoming increasingly rare. Harder than steel, this semi-precious stone semi-pre SOME facts about jade: requires diamond tools to cut and a deft hand to sculpt into art. Every summer, Sopel, flies north in search of premium quality jade. “The really fine quality jade —- with bright colours and even tone -— is really rare,” says the 47-year-old artist. The old Ogden mine has long since dried up and jade traders have found new sources to mine. One popular site, near Cassiar and the Yukon-B.C. border, can only be accessed by helicopter between the months of June and September when the snow has thawed. In that tight time frame, Sopel may get the call at any time to fly to the site to make his purchase. When he gets there he must jockey with foreign buyers for the finest picces of jade. _ B.C. exports the majority of its jade, about 250 tonnes of the non-renewable resource cach year. Jade trinkets and souvenirs labelled “Made in China” may actually be carved from stone from a B.C. source. But don’t expect to tind Sepel’s designs in a tacky souvenir shop. The North Van resi- dent’s sculptures are pricey ($3,000 to $35,000) and collected internationally by the rich and famous. Prominent personalities with a Sopel in their pessession include former US. president George Bush, Chancellor Helmet Schmidt of Germany, Prince Takamado of Japan and the prime minster of Sweden. His work is highly collected in the U.S. Locally, fans can view his work at his down- town Vancouver gallery, at 595 Howe St., which opened in December. Serious collectors may also meet with the artist at his Lower Lonsdale showroom and studio, where a team of six full-time craftsmen assist the artist with production. Polar bears, whales and salmon are popular motifs but a recent vacation to Hawaii’s “gar- den islind,” Kauai, has inspired Sopel to experiment with exotic blooms delicately carved from alabaster and rodonite. est quality of nephrite jade. Q Jade is a semi-precious stone, a metamorphic rock made up of a silicate of calcium and magnesium. Q Known as the Stone of the Loins, jade was believed in ancient days to have great medicinal powers. QO The term “jade” is a generic term that actually covers two minerals: jadcite and nephrite. Jadeite is generally brighter and more vivid in colour than nephrite. It can be found in Upper Burma, China, Tibet and San Benito, California. Nephrite is the jade of Chinese antiquity and can be found in China, New Zealand, Wyoming, Alaska, Mexico and northern B.C. 9 British Columbia has the world’s largest quantity and high- © B.C. annually exports 250 tonnes of raw jade every year. Harder than steel, jade requires diamond teols to work with. Q Jade is a non-renewable resource the world has treasured for centuries. QO During the Stone Age, tools were made from jade, which offered metal-like qualities while retaining stone characteris- tics. Neolithic artifacts found in eastern China and southern Siberia include jade axes, gouges, rings and pendants. Q To many cultures, jade was a symbol of wealth. Chinese emperors valued jade more than western kings coveted gold and silver. Central and Southern American cultures appreciat- WIN THE CRASH TEST DUMMIES NEW CD: PAGE 22 NEWS photos Paul McGreth LYLE Sopel gains design inspiration from the patterns and tonal! variations in the jade itseif. “I often have the vision of the werk even before I start,” he says. cicus stone harder than steel ed jade above all other possessions until the arrival of the Spanish. Q As far back as 3,500 years ago, First Nations people of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska fashioned nephrite into tools and lip ornaments. Q The tribes near Monterey heated shatter-resistant nephrite pebbles from the beaches for cocking their food. Q Colours of jade range from the many shades of green to yel- low, red black and white. Lavender jade is the most highly val- ued and also the rarest form of the stone. Sources: Lyle Sopel Studio and the Mineral Gallery Web site. — Layne Christensen