This bear carving is entirely unique as the bear features two different holes for placement, giving you the option of displaying the bear facing left or facing right, depending on your preference.
Our Master carver, Lina, comes from a family of carvers. Her grandfather was a Burmese Jade carver in the early 1900’s. Lina has been carving since she was a young child, starting with wood and soon migrating to beautiful stones such as Canadian Jade, Alberta Petrified Wood, Amethyst, Rose Quartz, and other crystals and stones. Lina designs and carves all our signature pieces.
Lina currently lives in the Greater Vancouver Area, where her studio is located. While she carves our larger (signed) pieces, her apprentices carve each of our smaller, or unsigned, carvings. Lina trains her apprentices in her personal, unique style of carving, which utilizes as much of the natural stone as possible to create a truly unique bear. This is a direct contradiction to standard stone carving methods, which utilizes an “assembly line” method of carving, where each bear will turn out exactly the same as the one before. Because of Lina’s method, each apprentice is tasked with creating something unique with as little stone waste as possible, which teaches them to problem solve and really utilize and cultivate their own creative methods.
Whenever possible, Lina sources Canadian stones for her carvings, including Jade sourced from across British Columbia, and Alberta Petrified Wood, two of her favourite materials. Star Marble, Rhodonite, Hematite, and Sodalite are also used when available. She believes that if a carving reminds you of a place, the stone should be from there as well.
Canadian jade is a type of nephrite jade that ranges in colour from light green to dark green and sometimes in a black. The Canadian jade mines are the largest jade producing mines in the world. As many Canadian mines are slowly being depleted, the price of jade keeps going up as it becomes scarcer. Whatever type of jade you prefer, a good consistent colour and a good depth of colour is important. Canadian jade rates with the world’s best.
Amethyst ranges in colour from a very light lavender to a deep violet shade of purple sometimes with slight hues of pink and red. Banded amethyst or cape amethyst may have lines of agate or chalcedony running through the amethyst. This may also be called chevron amethyst.
Each carving is truly one of a kind and all are inspired by Lina’s time in the Rockies. May you enjoy your signed carving, as it is a beautiful artist piece, and a lasting memory of your time in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.
Custom padded wooden box included.
