Chinese designers are tapping into traditional elements in order to boost creativity and their presence on the international jewelry stage. Gan Tian reports
Chinese art jewelry designers are shining on the world's fashion stage by emphasizing their culture.
Taiwan's Cindy Chao has an ongoing jewelry exhibition in Beijing's luxurious Yintai Center. With dark walls, dimmed lights and small passage ways, the venue's dark and intimate setting provides privacy for her customers, who include political figures from the Middle East, movie stars from the United States, and local billionaires.
Chao made her name with the "Four Season
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" collection, which was auctioned for $75,000, at Christie's New York, in 2007.
Comprising four pieces, the collection highlights nature's seasons with four giant diamonds shaped into branches, leaves, and flowers.
Her Royal Butterfly brooch graced the front page of the bible of fashion, Women's Wear Daily, which described her jewelry as having a "butterfly effect" on world design. She was invited to Selfridges for an exhibition in London, and to open a shop there.
The colors and smooth lines of her creations are typical of imperial Chinese jewelry. Last year, inspired by traditional hand-held fans, she designed The Majestic Beauty Fan, composed of 2,399 diamonds weighing 310.27 carats.
She says she understands the spirit of Chinese elements.
"It is not necessarily dragon or phoenix patterns. It is how to make a jewelry piece alive. That needs observation, long-time study, and patience, which I gained from my parents," Chao says.
Chao was taught by her father, a sculptor, to "pay attention to every detail of life", while she inherits her talent for commerce from her mother, a businesswoman.
"Compared with Westerners, we have a better history of jewelry design. You should take a close look at jewelry made for the imperial families in the Tang (AD 618-907) and Qing dynasties (1644-1911). They paid a lot of attention to details. As a Chinese jewelry artist, this is what we should stick to: making every tiny part of our work come alive," Chao says.
Anna Hu, also from Taiwan, has been formally trained in the arts since she was 4 years old, including playing the piano and cello.
Hu's logo is a picture combining her surname's character and five bats, one of the characters for which means "fortune" in Chinese. Most of her famous creations are inspired by stories and legends related to China.
Her latest earrings and rings are based on Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot, in which a beautiful Chinese princess has three questions for her suitors. If they cannot answer them, they are sentenced to death.
Hu uses a sapphire, a ruby, and an emerald to illustrate the answers: "hope", "blood", and "love". The main character, the Chinese princess, is created out of agate, which represents power, beauty, but also cruelty.
Hu says she often seeks inspiration from Chinese paintings and pictures. Her necklace Dancing Crane was inspired by the cranes drawn by former emperor Huizong (1082-1135), who was famous for his art, calligraphy, and music.
Hu's clients include Madonna, Oprah Winfrey, Drew Barrymore and other Hollywood stars.
Hong Kong's Dennis Chan founded his brand, Qeelin, six years ago, and he already has boutiques in Paris, London, Los Angeles and Tokyo.
Chan's first significant creation was a white gold calabash-shaped necklace. It became a popular item when Maggie Cheung wore it at the 2004 Cannes Festival.
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He made the calabash his brand's symbol and has also crafted earrings, bracelets and fine watches in this shape. "Calabash is a typically Chinese shape, like the number 8, which means fortune here," Chan says.
Bobo is a panda necklace. Chan loves collecting Bearbrick toys and wondered why there was not a similar toy with a typical Chinese symbol. That's why he designed Bobo.
Ling Long is a necklace with several bells. He met a girl in Yunnan province who wore bells all over her dress. The girl told him, in her tribe, the sounds of bells drives misfortune away. Chan had a brainwave and put a diamond in a bell, making it into a necklace.
"Usually, the (buyer) wants to see the diamonds. But I want them to hear the diamonds instead. That is my bell. Customers cannot even see it. It makes this item mysterious, but luxurious."
Chan insists on creating something modern based on traditional Chinese elements, partly because his brand was inspired by a Silk Road trip he took in 1997. "We received a Western education from a young age, so I had no knowledge about the mainland before Hong Kong returned to China in 1997," Chan says.
The Dunghuang Grottoes amazed him. For the first time he understood his country's culture was a treasure house. Seven years later, Qeelin was born. "I am grateful there are many things in our culture I can use in jewelry design. But we have to rejuvenate them, make them modern, and give them new meaning in this age."
