Because jade is a high-priced gemstone―good-quality jade can cost as much as USD 2 million per ton―extreme care is required even from the quarrying stage. Once the jade is obtained, it is necessary to swathe it with yellow earth to prevent it from forming cracks, and cover it with a thick straw bag to protect it from the sun’s direct rays and any dramatic changes in temperature. For a jade carver, precise calculation is an essential factor even from the initial stage of designing with drawings. Because carving demands extreme precision, the artisan needs to be equipped with sophisticated carving skills as well as superior aesthetic receptivity. Knowing that a production of a good jade piece begins with obtaining fine precious stone, Jang always prepares to travel anywhere in the world where quality jade is found. In fact, he has been quarrying the gemstone from a mine in Russia since 2003. Once the stone is obtained, he remains with it night and day, absorbing himself into the creation of ideas about the pieces he will make with it. He says that it is a passionate moment, like the instant he met his lover with whom he fell in love at first sight. He feels that as if he is in heaven, freely crossing over the boundary between reality and the world of fantasy until finally a definite figure appears in his mind. He sees the stone as a dragon, a vase, or an incense burner. Only then, only after finding a form that perfectly matches the nature of the stone, can he create a perfect work of art that does not permit even the hint of error or flaw. The superb techniques excelling all others in Jang’s works are the 'yeouiju technique’ and the ‘chain technique.’ The yeouiju technique is one used for carving a dragon with yeouiju, or a magic pearl, in its mouth. The craftsman does not put the pearl into the dragon’s mouth after the completion of the mouth, but carves the pearl and the mouth at the same time with the same jade block until the pearl begins to roll around inside the orifice with a pair of canine teeth preventing the pearl from rolling out. The chain method is used to carve, again with a single block of jade, a set of links that is flexible while connected together. Art critics say that the exquisiteness and precision of the above two carving skills excels those made by Chinese carvers, who originally developed the skills, praising Jang as a “divine master artist.” Jang’s exceptional carving skills and techniques have been widely acknowledged, even outside Korea. With exhibitions held in five Southeast Asian countries in 1983 and in Texas and New York, U.S.A., in 2001, he earned an international reputation as a master jade carver with awe-inspiring talent and ability. Two works, “Double Chain” and “A Dragon with a Magic Pearl in its Mouth,” attracted particular attention from both general art lovers and critics, who were fascinated by the skill that made the pearl roll around within the dragon’s mouth when the wind blew. Currently, Jang Ju-won is devoting all his energy into two pieces: “Korea Fantasy” and “Five Hundred Arhats.” Having worked on them for more than 20 years now, these are mega-size works of more than two meters in both length and width. The “Korea Fantasy,” in particular, is a piece carved from a three-ton jade block revealing the panoramic of Korea’s history for five millennia, from the age of Dangun, the founder of Korea, to the present. His incredible works of art created by carving a hard jade block with an obsessive, artistic spirit widens viewers’ eyes because of his exquisite and precise skills. Moving closer to the pieces, however, they can smell a pleasant, subdued fragrance. The phenomenal efforts and creative tenacity he has concentrated into the jade for his entire life exudes this scent, which lingers in the air and is breathed in by the spectators, becoming a part of them. View the master's works