For those of you following my blog, I apologize for the lack of update. I went on a month vacation to Asia to visit different independent jewelry designers. Most of them do customized jewelry, I didn't know that much about the business of the jewelry industry till I met them. Due to copyright issues, I was not able to take that many photos, however I managed to took some with permission from the designers.
My first stop was at Hong Kong. This man right here is Mr. Celso Alejo. He is a graduate gemologist (G.G) of the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), he does appraisals and also customized jewelry for high-end customers. His company, D'ALEJO is based in Hong Kong, and most of his clients are expatriates. He spent the whole day walking me through the process of his work which was very helpful. Below is a ring he made for his client, it was an extremely difficult work because of the pave stones and the intricate hollow lace details inside.
My next stop was in Shanghai. Here I met Ms. Eden at her studio for a quick chat. She used to go to school at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in FIT where she studied fashion design. However, after graduation she moved to Shanghai to start her jewelry business. Like Celso, she does customize jewelry. Her style is a mixture of avant-garde and elegance, it reminds me a lot of David Webb's design. Below is me looking through her jewelry sketches and feeling extremely stunned by the detailed drawings. You can take a look at some of her work here.
Lastly, my stop at another jewelry designer really left me astonished. This jewelry designer named Aaron Xu was beyond remarkable (below). His design style carries European characteristics. He told me that his inspirations always come from the aesthetics of Europe, mostly Italy. As someone who does not know how to design jewelry yet, he told me a tip that I still remember. He said whenever I want to design jewelry, I should have the stone first and design around the stone, and not the other way around because it's hard to find a specific stone that would always cater to my design.
My next stop was in Shanghai. Here I met Ms. Eden at her studio for a quick chat. She used to go to school at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in FIT where she studied fashion design. However, after graduation she moved to Shanghai to start her jewelry business. Like Celso, she does customize jewelry. Her style is a mixture of avant-garde and elegance, it reminds me a lot of David Webb's design. Below is me looking through her jewelry sketches and feeling extremely stunned by the detailed drawings. You can take a look at some of her work here.
Lastly, my stop at another jewelry designer really left me astonished. This jewelry designer named Aaron Xu was beyond remarkable (below). His design style carries European characteristics. He told me that his inspirations always come from the aesthetics of Europe, mostly Italy. As someone who does not know how to design jewelry yet, he told me a tip that I still remember. He said whenever I want to design jewelry, I should have the stone first and design around the stone, and not the other way around because it's hard to find a specific stone that would always cater to my design.
