Master Sculptor
David Wong

With shades that vary from dark red to pale pink, rhodonite is a manganese silicate that’s composed from a variety of minerals including calcite, iron and magnesium. It’s quite a popular gemstone among collectors and jewellery enthusiasts, due to the brilliant colour and relative rarity.

Rhodonite is often kept rounded and polished instead of being faceted, making it a great choice for making beads, carvings and other decorative objects. Believed by some to be associated with love, compassion and understanding, rhodonite can be a great source of spiritual healing. If you’re looking to add some colour and spirituality to your life, this mineral can make the perfect addition to any setting.

Marble has been a popular material for sculptures and carvings throughout history because of its durability and beauty. This metamorphic rock is formed when limestone is subjected to high pressure and heat, causing the minerals within the rock to recrystallize and form a denser, more compact material. The resulting stone is smooth and lustrous, with a variety of colors ranging from white to black and everything in between.

There aren’t a ton of available David Wong marble sculptures, but the ones he did sculpt exude a timeless feeling of strength and durability. This includes the Marble Polar Bear and the Marble Seal, with both of these pieces capturing and reflecting the light in a way that adds a natural depth and dimension to the sculpture.

This naturally forming volcanic glass stone is found in deposits around volcanoes, where felsic lava has cooled rapidly. Its naturally black, glassy texture can sometimes have hints of red, and was traditionally used to make tools and weapons. Thought to bring feelings of safety, grounding, truth and healing, the dark and dreamy textures of obsidian made it the perfect material for sculptures, and a wonderful addition to your living space or office.

Although it’s not as hard as jade, obsidian still requires a special set of tools to carve and polish into the beautiful sculptures you see. One of the common techniques is to use a saw and diamond cutting wheel, or a tile cutter with a diamond blade.

This deep blue gemstone has been prized for centuries for its unique colour and appearance. Almost celestial in its appearance, the royal blue stone is speckled with white calcite and sometimes gold pyrite, mimicking the appearance of stars. Considered by some to bring forth truth and wisdom, as well as peace and harmony.

Lapis lazuli is relatively easy to carve, which is partly why it has been such a prevalent part of various cultural artifacts for centuries. Many historians believe that what’s referred to as sapphires in the Old Testament was actually lapis lazuli, as sapphires were not known before the Roman Empire.

One of the oldest materials used for sculptures, ivory has been used for ornamental carving since prehistoric times, becoming especially prevalent during the medieval era. Often called ‘ivories,’ ivory carvings can be carved manually or mechanically from animal teeth or tusks. Today the production of ivory carvings has been reduced, as elephants and other species which produce ivory have become endangered in the hunt for their tusks and teeth.

Many of David Wong’s pieces incorporate the use of ancient mammoth tusk ivory to add detail to a jade piece. For example you’ll find two ivory tusks on his Jade Walrus carving or as antlers on a moose. We also carry some of Wong’s exclusively ivory carvings made from ancient mammoth tusk, such as the Mammoth Tusk Inuit Hunter, or the Mammoth Tusk Band of Mountain Goats.