Our story begins in 1986 with John David Sheehan, our father.

Our story begins in 1986 with John David Sheehan, our father.

We’re a small, family-run business made up of crafters and carvers.

We’re a small, family-run business made up of crafters and carvers. Starting in 1986 as a tiny flicker in founder John David Sheehan’s mind, we’ve grown from humble roots to become a leader in the creation of hand-crafted jade carvings. While we’ve grown since those early days that John spent hunched over in his single man workshop, Mountain Jade is still run by us, the Sheehan family. For three generations we’ve shaped jade by hand into designs that do two things; reference the stone’s cultural past and explore a future that’s less familiar. That flicker John had all those years ago now burns brightly, and everything we do is imbued with that flame.

Our Team

Our team of jade carvers is spread across Aotearoa from the West Coast of the South Island, to Hawkes Bay and Rotorua in the North Island. We work with many, many independent artists, bringing together the largest, best and most diverse range of products in the country. We also employ our own team of carvers across our studios, who work under expert tutorship to produce incredible pieces.

You can come and see them at work on one of our tours. We also work with silversmith and craftsmen overseas to help us to connect with customers around the world.

Closer to home, the family legacy continues; John Sheehan Junior and Hannah Sheehan following in our father's footsteps, continuing to evolve the diverse Mountain Jade product range. Despite our different backgrounds and geographic barriers, we’re all focused on one goal: forming beautiful products from the best quality jade we can find. Our pieces are an extension of who we are as a company and what we want to become.

Pictured: Johnny Vroblfski

We carve life into stone

We’re connected to the jade we use and love spending time in a workshop, creating something from nothing. While we’re industry leaders when it comes to creating jade carvings, we still ensure each and every piece we deliver is crafted to our own high standards. Pushing creative boundaries is important to us, but you’ll always find classic designs amongst our pieces. It’s this blend of heritage and future that excites us most.

Our passion for this stone is strong

As we’ve grown, we’ve travelled to some of the most beautiful countries in search of new types of jade, colours, textures and features. Our passion for this stone is strong and we are constantly looking for new ways we can create. We’ve sought out jade in the wilds of Canada and remote Sayan mountains of Siberia, the dangerous country of Yemen, arid deserts of Australia and lush wilderness of New Zealand’s South island. After exploring them all we now have the most diverse collection of jade in the world to show for it.
OUR PROMISE

Each of our pieces are hand finished to the highest level.

That means smooth lines, soft finishes, no scratches and no cuts. Our products are individual and unique, with merits and quirks helping to shape their stories. We’re over-finishers, everything’s made the hard way.

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