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Sunday
Aug102008

The making of the Beijing Olympic medals in jade

As well known to all of you, the backside of the Beijing Olympic Medals is made in white jade from Geermu (Qinghai) for the gold medal, greyish jade from Qiemo (Xinjiang) for the silver medal and green jade from Xinjiang for the bronze medal.

In the following pictures you will be seeing some of their manufacturing steps!

The ancient master for the Beijing Olympic Medal


Cutting the raw jade

The jade workshops

Cutting out the jade rings with a CNC milling machine

The finaly sizing of the outside diameter of the jade ring

Inspection and smooting the edges

Do you see the translucency?

A ring for a champion!

The masters in plaster of the metal part of the medal

The metal blanks for the bronze medal


The medal stamping die press

The wings of victory

The engraving and machining of the medal holder

Inspecting the machined medal holder

Assembling the bronze medal with the green jade ring


The metal part of the gold, silver and bronze medals ready for assembly

The medals ready for the Olympic Champions.

Images courtesy of www.beijing2008.cn

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Reader Comments (1)

Greetings FRIENDS OF JADE friends:

You will recall that we first saw the Olympic medals on this site when I posted the front and back views of three designs more than a year ago. Now you can see the results on TV several times a day. If you want to see how the medals were made you can see them clearly on the new post from our Chinese connection, Herbert Giess. Enjoy them.
Fred Ward, Friends of Jade
August 10, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterFred Ward, Friends of Jade

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