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January 17, 2016

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Jewelry designer breaths life into antiques

IN many ways, the jewelry of designer Zhang Lijun’s is emblematic of her native Suzhou. It’s modern and elegant and strives to combine the old with the new. Her passion for traditional Chinese culture and old art objects as well as the picturesque Suzhou Gardens, which she says have helped form her style, are all mirrored in her jewelry design.

Walking the streets of Suzhou, Zhang is always on the lookout for small antiques and, by incorporating them into her designs, she gives them a second life instead of just restoring their old beauty. Her exquisite designs are a perky mix of these rustic elements with metals like gold and silver as well as with more traditional Chinese jewelry elements like jade and porcelain. The combinations come naturally and are spontaneous — Zhang says she follows her feelings and instincts in creating her designs.

As one of Suzhou’s most prominent jewelry designers and as an avid supporter for Chinese jewelry designs, Zhang talked with Shanghai Daily about style, heritage and the challenges that local jewelry faces in China.

 

Q: Your design represents traditional culture by using old jade, porcelain, gold and silver in a modern style. When did this style form?

A: My bachelor’s degree is oil painting and my master’s degree is in clothing. It took me a very short time to make my transition to jewelry design because for me, the ways of expressing beauty are quite similar. I also worked hard on studying the ancient Chinese history of jewelry and spent time in antique markets searching for old objects such as antique jewels. In China, people prefer to collect calligraphy, paintings, or gold and jade objects. Antique jewelry, especially those for women, is not so popular. Therefore, it is much easier to find some old jewelry or incomplete ones at a discount, and that’s what we can use to create some modern designs. When I started, I didn’t think about promoting Chinese culture and aesthetics — it was all just about making practical and beautiful jewelry. And of course, part of my motivation was also that I love to wear my own jewelry.

The jewelry you found at the time were mostly made of gold, diamonds and precious stones and I wasn’t interested in that.

 

Q: Do you remember the first piece of jewelry you created?

A: I felt this sudden inspiration and decided to apply some Suzhou Gardens elements to original design. It was a piece of art jewelry that conveys my concept of art, but it wasn’t wearable jewelry.

 

Q: How do you balance tradition and innovation?

A: I never just restore or repair old jewelry to what they used to be. Instead, I want to use them to create a modern piece of jewelry that is suitable to wear today. In Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), hair clasps, earrings and rings were predominant, while necklaces were difficult to match with clothing at the time. But today, necklaces are important accessories, while hair clasps are not so common anymore.

 

Q: Chinese people usually buy gems and jewelry abroad. Although we have some excellent local designers and works, it’s rare that they are accepted in the same way. Do you think this has anything to do with cultural dislocation?

A: We are definitely experiencing cultural dislocation. The world is following trends set by the West now, and that brings problems not only in terms of education, but also for other parts of society.

Chinese traditional jewelry making is now on the decline — for example, there are only a few craftsmen left who are willing to do engraving work.

I teach jewelry design at Soochow University, and I keep researching how to properly teach jewelry design. Catching up with Western designs is our responsibility in the education sector. At school, I emphasize enhancing our self-confidence. We Chinese are proud and at the same time we feel inferior. We have a profound history and culture but we are still chasing after Western countries. As a teacher, I should not only teach design skills but also promote Chinese aesthetics and do my best in both education and design.

 

Q: In other markets, designers are often also craftsmen — people who produce what they have designed. Do you think designers should be like them?

A: I think designers had better put their design into real objects themselves. Yes, many foreign craftsmen produce what they design. But in our domestic market, the job of designer and craftsman is clearly divided. It’s changing — many of my students create their own brand after graduation and they choose to make the jewelry on their own in the back of their shops.

 

Q: How important is market recognition when you think about your jewelry design?

A: Business promotion is quite essential. We cannot just do designs behind closed doors, but we need channels to promote them as well.

Take Kunqu Opera for example: It was a traditional, but seldom accepted in Suzhou in the past. But for the youth edition of “The Peony Pavilion,” the costumes and only some chapters were picked for the stage performance. With a lot of promotion and a successful business model, the opera is now popular and succeeds in promoting Kunqu Opera. It’s similar with jewelry design. Without promotion, people never know what you are doing and they would also never know about Chinese jewelry aesthetics.




 

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