green stone in Australia?

Hello everyone, you have no idea how happy I am that I found this site !!, I have been toying with the idea of bone carving for a long time and now it seems its getting closer as I'm learning so much from all of you artists. Originally I am from Costa Rica, some of you may be aware that the precolombian nativies used jadeite extensively, it was asurprise to me to see the resemblance in some of the Maouri carvins.
May question is(are): 1- does anybody know anyone who brings green stone from NZ into Australia? 2- which stone should I start with, ie, which stone is the softer to start carving? and what are the basic requirements to start.
Thank you so much for providing this wonderful site.
Jocamber

Your in luck, There are a few substantially talented stone carvers and a few of them are grand members. Welcome to TC and Can't wait to see the first post. Happy carving.

Welcome to TC Jocamber, Glad to have you on board. You might find some answers to your ?'s HERE in Tama's Stone thread. As far as availability, good jade is getting hard to come by and I'd start with Trade Me or eBay, there's Lots of jade there. As for the softest to start with, Jade is harder than steel so any is good to start. Of course Bone is easier for sure and is redily available anywhere. Here in the US good, clean and cured cow bone is to be had at many pet shops for a couple bucks per 4 inch chunk.
Good luck!

On 2008-10-28 23:14, jocamber wrote:
Hello everyone, you have no idea how happy I am that I found this site !!, I have been toying with the idea of bone carving for a long time and now it seems its getting closer as I'm learning so much from all of you artists. Originally I am from Costa Rica, some of you may be aware that the precolombian nativies used jadeite extensively, it was asurprise to me to see the resemblance in some of the Maouri carvins.
May question is(are): 1- does anybody know anyone who brings green stone from NZ into Australia? 2- which stone should I start with, ie, which stone is the softer to start carving? and what are the basic requirements to start.
Thank you so much for providing this wonderful site.
Jocamber

Kia ora/Aloha/Hola/Gidday Jocamber - Welcome to TC!

Youre lucky there in Aussie to actually have a couple of very large jade deposits (although there has been some debate as to whether the Western Australian stone technically stands up to being termed 'nephrite', due to its very regular/layered grain. True nephrite has an intensely felted microsructure which gives it such amazing strength.) Another occurance is in Sth Aust, at Cowell - Paipo is the Man to tell you about that stuff..

Raw NZ jade can only be exported in small quantities (5kg?) and postage costs prohibitive also, but your main problem (like all who wish to carve NZ pounamu!) would be simply finding any decent stone for sale at all. If I were based in Australia Id be going for the local stone for sure - I reckon there's an untapped market in our ex-pat 'mozzies' (Maori Aussies).. :lol:

Be sure to check out the 'Stone Q&A' and/or 'Bone Q&A' threads for more info on setting yourself up with these tools & perhaps to show us your first efforts. Good supportive crew here

Get Tiki-ing!