Nathaniel Cook holding one of his creations. (Photo provided by Nathaniel Cook)
EDMONDS, WA — Nathaniel Cook, 26, of Edmonds, was awarded the bronze medal for his hand-crafted jade sculptures at Zi Gang Bei, an annual international jade carving exhibition held in Suzhou, China from Nov. 18–20.
All of the nephrite jade Cook used in his sculptures was harvested from Washington state’s Cascade Mountains by local jade mining company, Washington Jade, where Cook is also employed.
Oracle
Cook was one of the youngest carvers ever to be invited to Zi Gang Bei and presented alongside some of the best-known jade carvers in the world. “To win a medal on my first go was completely unexpected,” said Cook. He submitted two pieces for the competition, but the piece the judges liked best was ‘Oracle,’ an abstract piece made from local Blue Dream Jade and grossular garnet.
Cook plans to return to China next year to participate in the 2017 Zi Gang Bei Exhibition.
Also I think you’re abstract sculpting is amazing. Keep it up. -Col
P.s. Congratulations on winning bronze. -Colin
I meant to say *weird with their design.
I think jade sculptures are great, but I think it would be more popular with culture if people carved jade/stones into astrological zodiac signs. (Just my opinion). I liked the article though, good read…
-Colin Nguyen
I would say that a huge portion, if not the majority, of Chinese jade carvings incorporate their zodiac animals. Were you suggesting carvings of Western (Greek) zodiac signs? That could be an interesting direction.
-Nathan
Yes, I was thinking of western/greek zodiac signs. I like jade carvings and I think they’re great art, but I think some sculptors are with they’re designs, especially the ones that card Buddha’s… Do you have a tumblr page or some social network media for your art? -Colin
Hi Colin,
Apologies for the long delay. All of my work can be found on our mining company’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/BullTroutJade/) as well as our website (http://nathanielcook.washingtonjade.com/).
-Nathan
Cool, thanks for the reply and the links. Good luck to you in your scupltures and design, I hope that you compete in sculpture and design next year and may I suggest several newspapers for maybe press or maybe an article?!?! There’s a paper in Mukilteo, Snohomish County (I think it’s called the North County Outlook, or something?!?!) and there’s a newspaper in the Queen Anne area.., you may be able to get a lot of exposure in those newspapers.