John Sheehan Junior likes working with Jade because he has been surrounded by it all of his life.
He love its strength, translucency and range of colour and likes to push the stone to its limits, creating truly unique pieces.
Born in 1982, John Sheehan Junior has been carving Jade full-time since finishing high school at age 17.
While at school he carved at nights and at the weekends under the guidance of his father, John Sheehan Senior, his brother, Joe Sheehan and another senior member of Mountain Jade’s leading in-house design team, Lewis Tamahere, all of whom have excellent reputations for outstanding work with Jade.
He has worked with Jade at all levels, from mining and cutting to carving, production and process selling and knows the stone well, having experienced it first-hand in four different countries.
In Canada, John Sheehan Junior worked for seven months on a large scale hard stone sculpture and also worked in Jade mines there, identifying and mining Canadian Jade.
John Sheehan Junior made several trips to China to learn about Jadeite and the art of Chinese carving in his formative years and still travels regularly to China to oversee
production and assist with the development of new product.
He has also represented New Zealand in Japan in the Sapporo snow carving competition on two occasions.
John Sheehan Junior looks for unique quality stone with different patterns and colours, chatoyant veins, and colour inclusions, with the ability to hold a good edge. He appreciates the tactile nature of Jade and for production work looks for consistent colour and quality.
John Sheehan Junior is responsible for the new and innovative designs in the Celtic and Piercing ranges presented by Mountain Jade at Inhorgenta 2007.
He has worked closely together with fellow designer Elfie Spiewack Mountain Jade is one of the world’s leading Jade specialists in Nephrite Jade and Jadeite.
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