Peter Schilling & Taking Form Jade

Peter Schilling – Simplicity Of Form & Old

World Polishing

Peter Schilling - Shell Form Study - Siberian White Nephrite Jade

Peter Schilling – Taking Form Jade

In my current carving I am excited to bring together a modernistic sensibility with what I have learned by handling and close-up study of some of the most beautiful art objects in the world, spanning thousands of years and cultural differences, and my intense love of the ‘Mother of Art’, the world of natural forms. While endeared to my carvings of stand-alone singularity, it is my wish that the pendants created will continually evolve from this synthesis of Art and Nature, to be experienced directly and intimately as heartfelt, wearable sculpture.

Peter Schilling - Free Form Pendant - Wyoming Nephrite Jade

My education background includes a BFA in Sculpture from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and an MFA in Sculpture from Columbia University. In addition to my ceaseless passion for the art of Jade Carving, I have worked in the fields of fine furniture design and cabinet-making, jewelry design and specialized mount-design and major installations of complete exhibitions for some of the Finest Art Museums in the World. My years of Fine Art Museum work – handling the Masterworks of the past – has been an immensely valuable learning experience which both inspires and humbles in equal measures.

Peter Schilling - Caterpillar on Leaf - One Piece Siberian Nephrite Jade

My first infatuation with the “Stone of Heaven” came as a child while visiting the marvelous jades of the Sonnenschein Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago. On a trip through Wyoming in college, I purchased my first pieces of ‘rough’ jade, but it was much later when I began to seriously carve jade. It was in my ‘forties’ when I discovered the art of Jade Carving as the perfect synthesis of my many years in sculpture, jewelry and experience working with archaic jades and wondrous objects of art in my Museum work. Since this time, the ‘love’ has grown stronger, not only for the stone itself, but for the precious hours spent working and honing the skills necessary to bring the pleasure I see on another’s face when they touch, then fondle, and then own their first piece of jade, their’s in turn to begin to cherish.