In the plan for the intervention I envisaged the possibility of producing the final jewellery in reality to help women in terms of craftsmanship or materials, for example by providing jobs or supporting traditional handicraft women makers.I found some relevant artists and studied their concepts and techniques in depth.
1) Heng Lee, a young talented Taiwanese jeweller and in her works the enamel is replaced by embroidery. Heng’s work is a mixture between computer assisted digital patterns and traditional crafts skills. In the “Floral Embroidery Series” he takes inspiration from the Chinese embroidery, which is a very old fine traditional craft. When you see his work you obviously thinking of pixels. It’s actually what he does: playing with photoshop in order to create a pixel mosaic. Then the shapes are cutting with a laser cutter. After using softwares, computer engineering and new technologies, Heng goes back to the traditional skills by using hand-embroidery to give colour and details to his pieces.
2) Zoe Lulu/ Xiangling Lu
Rice is very important in Asian culture and China is the world’s largest producer and seller of rice. In Lu Xiangling’s work, one can see how precious metals have been replaced by rice, to which she has added resin in order to make the rice stronger. Her work makes us ask ourselves about food consumption and waste and materialistic society. It’s not just about making beautiful jewellery out of unusual materials!
3) Ziju Chen
In 2006, American jeweller Ziju Chen researched and experienced a lost technique following her Master of Fine Arts degree. The jeweller is an artist in residence at Xiamen University in Fujian Province, China, and a lecturer at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, China.
In the series ‘China, Silhouettes of Memory’, Ziju Chen uses the famous bright blue feathers alongside Chinese banknotes, coral, turquoise and old photographs of Chinese families. Layers of banknotes with thin lines drawn by the feathers. Colour and technique are used to link and set the different parts and materials together. ziju Chen melts monofilament (used in fishing) to tie beads etc. Every detail tells us a story about China, its traditions and beliefs.