When working with Pounamu, there are several considerations to be made..

To the trained pounamu-seeking eye, a piece of greenstone looks interesting even before it’s cut. But there’s really no way of knowing what the inside of a stone is going to look like until it’s sliced with the right tools. There are several stories from our wider family and connections of stone-cutting feats that took several days to complete because of the stones’ sizes.

In a practical sense, greenstone is regarded as a difficult stone to effectively polish with its varying degrees of hardness, grain structure and inclusions. Each stone carver (lapidary) develops their own techniques according to the ways in which they carve, and the stones they more frequently work with. 

Longtime carvers who have paved the way in this industry have developed preferred techniques. For example, particular equipment and the use of water helps to keep the stone cool (and therefore not be blemished by heat marks) and it keeps the dust at bay, which is often a thick rind on the edges of stones. Particularly soft stones, especially those of the Inanga variety, can burn easily from friction caused by fast-spinning sanding wheels.

Polish is everything with pounamu. The stone can stand heat but it is how this heat is created to obtain the molecular flow over the surface which results in a flawless polish. In other words, this is a specialised art that only trained experts should attempt because it would be such a shame to see stone wasted when worked by the wrong hands!

Beyond practicality there is the question of craftsmanship when it comes to stone carving. There are many examples of excellent carvings in Aotearoa, some of which are time-honoured designs and some of which are more contemporary. Each piece is unique, even if it’s a traditional shape. Read more about pounamu shapes and stone varieties in our other blogs. 

Some carvers choose stones for their features and allow the stone’s qualities to dictate the shape, orientation and intricacies of the carving. This is just one way of carving stone, and we think it’s a wonderful way to showcase some of the true beauty and rarity we see in stones from different areas. The reverse is also true: carving a specific, traditional shape from a piece of stone will always unearth unique qualities of a stone whichever way the form is orientated and presented. 

That’s one of the most exciting things about working with pounamu - we never know exactly what colour or character we’re going to end up with in a finished product until it’s done. And even then, in different lights and environments pounamu can present in various ways, being true to the beautiful mineral resource that it is, and its connection to the natural world.