Month: May 2026

Jewelry Jaunts Rome: An Unforgettable Jewelry Adventure in the Eternal City

In early May, our group of jewelry lovers, guided by Bella Neyman, descended on the city of Rome to experience artisanship at its finest. In many ways, this trip to Rome helped us complete the trifecta after past trips to London and Paris. In London, we focused on artistry in fine jewelry; in Paris, we turned our attention to high jewelry; but in Rome, we learned about heritage, timeless traditions of goldsmithing passed down from one generation to the next, and small-batch production at the hands of skilled artisans.

The Eternal City provided a magical backdrop to our visit. Ancient ruins aside, it was the madonelle, or the elaborately framed street shrines of the Virgin Mary located on the facades of buildings, that reminded us of the city’s long goldsmithing traditions. The madonelle, framed with bows, golden rays, or crowns, looked like pendants floating around the city.

Day 1

We started our Roman adventure at the Università e Nobil Collegio degli Orefici, learning about the Roman guild of goldsmiths dating back to the 16th century. Located in a historic building—the only church completed by Raphael in 1508—it currently has 50 members and is still active in the daily life of its community. A bronze bust of St. Eligio, the patron saint of goldsmiths, is prominently displayed here. We even got to handle 16th-century books belonging to past members.

We then made our way to the jewel-box boutique of Diego Percossi Papi. Papi has been designing and making his jewelry since 1968 in the heart of old Rome, in his small atelier next to the Pantheon on Via S. Eustachio. This shop used to house his sculpture studio and workshop, but that has now been moved to another location in the city. In the shop, you will find Diego sketching and his wife, Maria Theresa, welcoming clients while his children manage the workshop. Here you can see his beautiful Baroque-inspired creations that have adorned the earlobes and wrists of starlets in popular films, as well as jewelry lovers around the world.

A short distance away is the goldsmithing workshop of Paolo Mangano. A professor at IED Rome, Paolo has been creating jewelry for Italian and international brands since 1985. Thanks to decades of involvement in the work of Giorgio Vigna, his mentor and teacher, Mangano has developed a hybrid language: a dialogue based on both traditional and innovative techniques and technologies, specializing in the creation of artistic jewelry. In this workshop, he has made jewelry for artists such as Ai Weiwei and Jannis Kounellis, as well as developed his own sculptural creations. Paolo sits at the bench and demonstrates some of the techniques he employs, including quickly engraving names on our newly acquired rings.

Day 2

It would be sacrilegious to be in Rome on a jewelry trip and not visit the historic house of BVLGARI. We started our morning by touring the museum collection at BVLGARI DOMUS, located at its legendary address at 10 Via dei Condotti, with Gislaine Aucremanne, Bulgari Heritage Curator. DOMUS, which is connected to the retail boutique, offers annual exhibitions, giving jewelry lovers an opportunity to see significant pieces they might not otherwise. The current exhibition is called “The Genius of Images” and details the role of advertising campaigns in the company’s history. Prominent ads, reflecting society’s changing tastes and Bulgari’s evolution, were matched with their jewels. The gorgeous campaigns were also strategic in placing Bulgari in the pantheon of the city’s history and culture. We even took the exit once favored by Elizabeth Taylor, out the back to escape the paparazzi.

After a quick lunch at the nearby HOTEL BVLGARI, located in a grand 1930s building that houses a hotel, café, and rooftop restaurant with gorgeous city views, we were whisked away to the outskirts of Rome for a guided tour of the workshop. There, we learned about the Eclectica High Jewelry Collection, spoke with the design and production teams, visited the stone setters and polishers, looked at wax models, and chatted with the goldsmiths. No photos were allowed, so you had to be there. It was an incredible experience!

Our last stop was with Lucia Odescalchi. The designer’s jewelry is one of Italy’s best-kept secrets, although not for long, as she is expanding across Rome and into other cities in Italy. Her dedicated team of artisans crafts pieces that are bold and wearable, using multicolored crystal beads and oxidized silver. Her boutique, in a princely palazzo with fresco-covered ceilings, is located in a quiet alleyway off one of Rome’s busiest shopping streets and is a true gem.

Day 3

Midweek, we left Rome for the rolling hills of Umbria to visit goldsmiths Giovanni Corvaja and Jacqueline Ryan in Todi. The two jewelers met while they were students at London’s Royal College of Art, but their work and studios could not be more different.

The British-born Ryan occupies a former medieval bakery and has turned this incredible space, with vaulted ceilings and an outdoor garden, into a gallery and workshop. Here you can see her nature-inspired drawings, 3D paper maquettes, and high-karat gold finished pieces. Each room resembles a kunstkammer, filled with natural curiosities and found objects that reappear in her gold jewelry. Every piece is hand-pierced, forged, and hammered, with vitreous enamel adding color and the wearer’s movement bringing the work to life.

Corvaja’s studio is located a short distance from the main town square. A product of the Pietro Selvatico High School of Art in Padua, he is one of the world’s greatest goldsmiths. His studio is filled with machinery and tools, many antique or specially made by him, that allow him to create his pieces. Corvaja demonstrated his technique for working with wire, which is sometimes braided or woven, to create gold textiles. Corvaja is more than a jeweler; he is an alchemist. Inspired by art and literature, he brings to life objects made from gold that few would dare to make. For example, he showed us the Golden Fleece headpiece, inspired by the stories of Tolstoy; it is made from 24k and 18k individually spun gold wires. Corvaja made his own loom to be able to weave gold. It took him 2,900 hours to complete this piece and required 170 kilometers of gold thread. This piece was recently on view in the Solid Gold exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum.

This was a visit that we will not forget anytime soon.

Day 4

Still inspired by the incredible gold work we saw the day prior, we visited the National Etruscan Museum. A gorgeous 16th-century building designed by Vasari and Michelangelo, we had a guided tour of the museum’s collection, with a special introduction to its collection of Castellani jewelry. In fact, most of the museum’s second-floor jewelry collection was gifted to the Italian state by the Castellani family in 1919. It is a collection that begins in the 8th century BC and extends to the 19th century, including Castellani originals. The family started putting this collection together in 1860 and wanted it to rival the one gifted to the Louvre by the Italian Marquis Giampietro Campana. It is incredible to see the Etruscan creations alongside the more “contemporary” Castellani jewels. It is clear where the inspiration came from and how outstanding their craftsmanship was.

After looking at Etruscan micromosaics, we ventured across the Tiber to visit Le Sibille. It is a jewelry house run by three women: Camilla Bronzini, Francesca Neri Serneri, and Antonella Perugini. In their workshop, they use glass tesserae (following the ancient technique of creating small Roman mosaics) to create beautiful modern micromosaic creations inspired by the past. This is a great place to visit if you want to bring home your own Roman souvenir à la the Grand Tour.  On our way back to our hotel later, we visited the Basilica of Santa Maria della Pace, where we admired on the first floor of the Chiostro del Bramante in the “Sala delle Sibille”, the original Sibille by Raphael.

After lunch, we got another taste of Italian high jewelry with an atelier visit to Fabio Salini. The designer has worked with houses such as Cartier and BVLGARI and launched his first collection in 1999. He is known for creating powerful pieces that play with precious and non-precious materials like carbon fiber, rope, and exotic woods. We all went wild for his new necklaces with round stone beads and rope, among other things.

A short walk from Fabio’s is Alternatives Gallery. The gallery showcases the work of international contemporary jewelers as well as those associated with the AGC (Associazione Gioiello Contemporaneo), a non-profit organization focused on promoting and developing the culture and art of contemporary jewelry in Italy. It is definitely worth a visit!

Day 5

On our last day in Rome, we could not help but pay homage to the father of la dolce vita and Italian fashion: Valentino Garavani. The recently opened PM23, the foundation created by Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti, is hosting Venus, an exhibition in collaboration with the Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos. This is her first time exhibiting in Rome, and she created two site-specific outdoor installations plus sixteen installations paired with thirty-three of Valentino’s couture garments in the museum. It was an incredible sight! Vasconcelos is known for her monumental sculptures, but she initially studied to be a jeweler, so this attention to detail and work with materials is part of her DNA.

Energized by this visit, we wandered over to Hedy Martinelli’s boutique. We were greeted by Livia, who shared with us that Hedy Martinelli’s journey began over fifty years ago across Belgrade, Zagreb, and Budapest, ultimately finding its expression in Italy, where she opened an Art Deco jewelry boutique in Rome. Multi-strand woven bracelets and gunmetal-polished stud chokers with beautifully textured surfaces glistened in our hands.

Before we concluded our day, we also needed to visit some of the city’s best antique and vintage jewelry shops. Eleuteri, Sturni1925, and Di Castro, all within walking distance of Hedy Martinelli, gave us a boost that we needed before we said our goodbyes and headed up the Spanish Steps to enjoy the rest of the day.  

Written by Bella Neyman. Learn more about our next Jewelry Jaunt or read more from Future Heirloom

Wearable Archives: Memory and the Politics of Storytelling

Working between Hong Kong and the United States, Ho Oi Ying Valerie approaches jewelry not simply as adornment, but as a living, breathing archive. Her wearable forms hold stories of migration, resilience, and political memory in intimate ways. She trained as both a jeweler and educator and earned an MFA in Jewelry and Metalsmithing from the Rhode Island School of Design. The social and political conditions of Hong Kong, particularly after the 2019 protests, deeply shape her practice. A 2026–2027 One for the Future Honoree, she continues to gain recognition for work which bridges personal narrative and collective history.

Jewelry as Story and Social Archive

NYCJW: Let’s begin! How would you describe your practice right now? What is at the core of your work, and how does it take shape through jewelry?

HOYV: My practice examines jewelry as a mode of storytelling and social archive, translating personal and collective histories into wearable forms. Through projects such as Everyday Triumphs and Achievement Unlocked, I employ cloisonné badges to articulate narratives of migration, identity, and resilience, reframing “achievement” through intimate, everyday experiences. Positioned at the intersection of craft and research, my work treats making as a method of documentation, where material and process become vehicles for preserving lived experience.

Expanding the Archive: Toward Scale, Collaboration, and New Media

NYCJW: Your projects already function as intimate archives of lived experience. Have you imagined expanding this work further?

HOYV: One direction I have considered but not yet fully realized is the expansion of my cloisonné badge projects into a sustained, large-scale archive. In my current practice, I undertake multiple roles, including conducting interviews, translating narratives, fabricating the work, and overseeing promotion, exhibition, and publication, largely as a single-person operation. Through this process, I have come to recognize both the project’s potential and its limitations in scale.

I envision this work developing into a more expansive platform capable of holding a broader range of stories and participants. I feel prepared to move toward this larger-scale direction, while also recognizing the need to evolve my working model by establishing a more collaborative structure and engaging support across research, production, and organizational capacities.

At this stage, I understand my current work as both a foundation and a point of transition, positioning the project to grow into a more collective and sustainable framework.

From Wearable Archive to Moving Image

NYCJW: As you think about scaling that archival approach, are there other media that feel complementary to what jewelry can hold?

HOVY: If my work were to exist in a different medium, it would likely take the form of film or moving image. Much of my practice is rooted in oral history, with listening, translating, and interpreting personal narratives, and film offers a way to hold voice, gesture, and temporality in ways that static objects cannot fully capture.

While my cloisonné projects distill these stories into intimate, wearable forms, film would allow the narratives to unfold more expansively, preserving tone, rhythm, and presence. It would also create space for multiple voices to coexist, extending my interest in jewelry as an archive into a time-based and collective medium.

In this sense, I see film as a potential starting point for expanding the project further, particularly if the opportunity arises to explore these narratives through a time-based and collaborative format.

Reframing Jewelry Beyond Adornment

NYCJW: Your work pushes against traditional ideas of what jewelry is or should be. What assumptions or conventions within the field do you find yourself questioning most?

HOYV: One convention I often question is the tendency to position jewelry primarily as an object of adornment or luxury, rather than as a form of critical and narrative expression. While these associations remain deeply embedded within the field, my interest lies in how jewelry can function as a site for storytelling, documentation, and the preservation of lived experience.

In my practice, I engage with personal and collective histories, particularly those shaped by migration and everyday resilience, translating them into wearable forms. This approach challenges the notion that jewelry must prioritize aesthetic value or material preciousness in order to carry meaning.

Jewelry can serve as a powerful form of artistic expression, distinguished by its intimate relationship with the body. Worn rather than displayed, it enables individuals to embody and communicate what they value, functioning as a personal and mobile manifesto in public space.

I am also interested in expanding what is considered worthy of being recorded or remembered. Small, intimate, and often overlooked experiences can hold significant cultural and emotional weight, and I view jewelry as a powerful medium through which these narratives can be articulated, preserved, and shared.

On Responsibility, Interpretation, and Reworking History

NYCJW: When you’re working with personal and collective histories in this way, questions of interpretation and responsibility inevitably come up. Can you talk about a recent instance of doubt in your process? How did you work through it?

HOYV: A recent moment of creative doubt emerged while developing Achievement Unlocked in late 2025, particularly in the process of translating oral histories into cloisonné forms. I found myself questioning whether I was doing justice to the narratives I had collected, how much to interpret, what to simplify, and how to balance aesthetic decisions with the integrity of each story.

The doubt was less about making and more about responsibility. I was working with lived experiences shaped by migration and personal transition, and I became increasingly aware of the weight of representing others’ voices through my own lens.

I moved through this by returning to both the participants and the material. Revisiting interview notes, listening again to recordings, and allowing the cloisonné process, through wire placement, layering, and firing, to function as a form of careful translation helped me regain clarity. I also came to accept that interpretation is an inherent part of the work, and that my role is not to replicate a story, but to hold space for it through form.

That moment ultimately strengthened my approach, reinforcing the importance of attentiveness, ethical consideration, and trust in both the process and the relationships that shape the work.

Revisiting History Through Material Dialogue

NYCJW: That sense of responsibility also connects to history more broadly. If you could communicate directly with a historical figure through your work, who would it be?

HOYV: If I were to create a work for a historical figure, I would consider President Mao of China, informed by my research into political badges held in the archives of the British Museum. I was particularly struck by the presence of cloisonné badges produced in Hong Kong during that period, which revealed a complex relationship between craft, politics, and manufacturing history.

This discovery led me to question what it would mean to create such an object now, from my own contemporary position. Rather than functioning as a symbol of allegiance, the work would explore the shifting meanings embedded in these forms, how an object once used for mass political expression might be reinterpreted through a reflective and critical lens. It would also examine the emotional and historical tension of remaking such an object today.

In this way, the work becomes less about the figure itself and more about the act of revisiting history through material practice, considering what it means to reproduce, reinterpret, and carry these forms in the present.

Ephemera as Living Archive

NYCJW: Alongside these past references, you also draw inspiration from more ephemeral, everyday materials. What kinds of sources are currently shaping your thinking, and how are they entering your work?

HOYV: I have been increasingly drawn to printed ephemera, such as newsletters, pamphlets, personal letters, and other forms of low-cost, widely circulated materials, as a source of inspiration. These objects are often produced for immediate use rather than long-term preservation, yet they carry significant cultural, social, and political histories.

What interests me is their dual nature: they are both fragile and durable, easily overlooked yet deeply informative. Many of these materials exist at the margins of official archives, holding voices and narratives that are not always formally recognized.

I see this influence entering my work through both content and form. Conceptually, they inform my approach to storytelling and archival practice, particularly in how narratives are collected, translated, and shared. Materially, I am interested in how their visual language, like layout, repetition, and modes of circulation, might be reinterpreted through cloisonné and wearable formats.

By engaging with these sources, I aim to further position jewelry not only as an object of adornment but as a medium capable of carrying and preserving distributed, everyday histories.

Recognition and Intimate Listening

NYCJW: You are focusing on everyday experiences and overlooked narratives. How do you hope people feel when they encounter or wear your work?

HOYV: I hope that when someone engages with my work, they experience a sense of recognition, of seeing their own lives, or fragments of it, reflected back to them. Much of my practice centers on everyday experiences that are often overlooked, and I want to create space for these moments to be acknowledged as meaningful and worthy of attention.

I also hope the work offers a sense of closeness and quiet intimacy. Because jewelry exists on the body, it invites a different kind of relationship, one that is personal, reflective, and sustained over time.

More importantly, I hope it gives permission: permission to value small achievements, to hold onto personal histories, and to recognize one’s own experiences. No matter how ordinary they may seem, they carry significance. In this way, the work becomes not only something to look at, but something to live with and through.

Whose Story Is This?

NYCJW: What do you wish audiences would ask more often about your process or the stories embedded in each piece?

HOYV: One question I wish more people would ask is: Whose story is this, and how was it translated into form?

Much of my work begins with conversations, interviews, and the process of listening. The final object is only one layer of a larger process that involves interpreting lived experiences, navigating what to reveal or withhold, and considering how a story can be carried through material and form.

By asking this question, it shifts the focus from the object alone to the relationships, decisions, and responsibilities embedded in the work. It opens up a deeper understanding of jewelry not just as something to look at or wear, but as a medium that holds and mediates between different voices, experiences, and histories.

Quiet Resilience and Migration Narratives

NYCJW: Finally, can you share what ideas keep resurfacing across your practice? Why do those ideas remain central to your work?

HOYV: A recurring theme in my work is the quiet resilience embedded in everyday life, particularly within experiences shaped by migration, adaptation, and personal transition. I am consistently drawn to small, often overlooked moments that reflect how individuals navigate change and reconstruct a sense of belonging in new environments.

This theme continues to surface because I see myself as part of this broader community, individuals from Hong Kong who have relocated to other places in response to recent political shifts. These shared experiences of displacement and adjustment have deeply informed both my perspective and my approach to storytelling.

I am also interested in understanding migration not only as the movement of people, but as a relational process, one that involves how individuals are received, understood, and integrated within new communities. This perspective informs how I approach narrative, paying attention to both personal experiences and the broader social contexts in which they unfold.

Through my work, I return to these narratives as a way of acknowledging and preserving them. The repetition is intentional; it allows me to continually refine how these lived experiences are translated into material form, while creating space for these subtle yet significant aspects of life to be recognized and valued.

About One for the Future (OFTF)
One for the Future celebrates the next generation of jewelry and creative industry professionals. Each year, the program recognizes honorees for their innovation, craftsmanship, and/or unique perspectives. It also provides them with opportunities for mentorship, exposure, and connections with collectors and industry leaders worldwide.

Enjoyed this piece? Explore more jewelry content from Future Heirloom!

Material as Memory: A Conversation with Yuxin Song

Based in Calgary, Canadian-Chinese artist Yuxin Song is a 2026–2027 One for the Future Honoree whose work sits at the intersection of material history and personal narrative. Trained in both China and Canada, she brings together technical meticulousness and introspective inquiry, particularly through her specialization in enamel. Her practice moves fluidly amid tradition and experimentation, inviting viewers into spaces which feel both tactile and quietly emotional.

We spoke with Song about meaning, doubt, overlooked moments, and why her work might one day belong to SpongeBob.

Material Meanings and Contemporary Reinterpretation

NYCJW: To start us off, how would you describe the core of your practice? What draws you to the materials and ideas you work with?

YS: In my artistic practice, I explore how materials carry meaning and how these meanings can be reinterpreted in a contemporary way. I investigate how the physical properties, historical context, and technical processes of materials communicate ideas, which I then connect with my personal reflections and narratives.

NYCJW: You talk about meaning being layered and evolving. Are there ideas you’ve wanted to explore but haven’t quite found the right form for yet?

YS: I have long been interested in creating a series that highlights the small, often overlooked details of daily life, moments we notice but rarely take the time to truly explore. I haven’t fully developed this concept yet, as I am still figuring out the right materials and forms to bring it to life. For now, I am focusing on other directions in my work, but I hope to return to this idea in the future.

Expanding Scale and Shared Authorship in Experience

NYCJW: That attention to presence and detail feels closely tied to experience. If your work could expand beyond the scale of jewelry, how might it change?

YS: If my work could exist in a different medium, I believe it would be a large-scale installation. The size allows the work to occupy space in a way that small pieces cannot, giving it a strong presence. The audience can interact with the work, move around it, and become part of the experience.

NYCJW: Thinking about how viewers move through and interpret your work, how do you feel about authorship? Who ultimately holds the meaning?

YS: I disagree with the assumption that the artist holds authority over the meaning of their work. I view the creation of jewelry as a narrative process similar to writing. The artist uses material, structure, and visual language as tools, much like narrative techniques, to express their intentions. While the overall appearance serves as the ‘hook’ that draws the attention of the audience, the specific choices in form and material establish the context, and the visual language functions as the style.

However, once a work is finished, its meaning is no longer solely the artist’s. Unlike text, visual art has the power to communicate emotions and experiences that go beyond words. This allows the object to exist in a space of shared meaning, shaped in part by the audience’s perception and interpretation.

Creation as a Way Forward

NYCJW: Has that openness to interpretation ever been challenged by moments of doubt in your own practice?

YS: The last moment of major creative doubt I experienced was around 2024, when I questioned myself, my ideas, and the value of my work. I felt stuck and unsure of my direction. However, once I began making again, the act of creation itself became healing. The process allowed me to move through the doubt, and I found that solutions emerged naturally as I engaged with the work, step by step. Even now, I still experience moments of doubt, but I continue to move forward with them.

Playful Imaginations and Unexpected Inspirations

NYCJW: It sounds like play and curiosity are important in moving forward. If you could fully lean into that, is there someone you’d love to create for?

YS: I think I would create a work for SpongeBob and his friend Patrick. I love SpongeBob’s personality, and I think he would be really happy to receive it. Since my nickname in China is “Boluo”, which means pineapple, it feels like we already have a small connection. The work would be a matching, interactive pair that they could wear and use together, something playful that could even help them catch jellyfish.

Transformation and Flexibility in Process

NYCJW: That sense of play also shows up in your materials—what are you experimenting with right now?

YS: I am currently working on several series that feature raw stone and flexible ties.

For the raw stone, I am interested in the relationship between raw stone, gemstones, and enamel, and how these materials reflect different states of transformation.

For the flexible ties, I draw inspiration from chainmail. I previously used this structure to create bag-like forms, and now I am pushing it further, strengthening the system to build flexible, fabric-like enamel forms that can move and adapt to different movements.

Reflection, Healing, and Evolving Meaning

NYCJW: With all these material explorations, what kind of experience do you hope people have when they encounter your work?

YS: I see the visual aspect of my work as an entry point. Some people might simply be drawn to how it looks, and I think that is completely valid. Others may spend more time with it and begin to sense where it is coming from.

For me, the work holds space for reflection and a quiet sense of healing, as much of it is rooted in personal experience. If it resonates with someone and allows them to connect with their own thoughts or feelings, that is meaningful to me.

At the same time, I do not see meaning as fixed. I do not have the final say in how the work is understood. Each person brings their own perspective, and I value how the meaning can shift and expand through different interpretations.

Curiosity Behind the Making

NYCJW: When people do engage more deeply, what’s something you wish they were more curious about?

YS: I wish more people would ask about my making process.

For me, the process is not just a technical step; it is where the work really begins to take shape. I often think of it as a conversation with the material. Different materials have their own personalities, and sometimes my ideas come from experimenting with them. Other times, the process itself becomes part of the final concept.

Threads of Acceptance

NYCJW: And finally, when you look across your body of work, what feels like the thread that keeps reappearing?

YS: A recurring theme in my work is learning to accept, grow, and love. In my 2022 ceramic installation, this was very obvious, as I focused on highlighting life’s imperfections. In my recent work, it has become more subtle, appearing through the materials I use.

I enjoy using objects to express my feelings, and I hope my work can bring a small sense of healing, even if it resonates with only a few people.

Yuxin Song’s practice resists fixed meaning, instead offering a quiet, material-driven dialogue between artist, object, and audience. Whether working with enamel, stone, or flexible structures, she treats making as both inquiry and conversation—one that continues long after the work leaves her hands.

About One for the Future (OFTF)
One for the Future celebrates the next generation of jewelry and creative industry professionals. Each year, honorees are recognized for their innovation, craftsmanship, and/or unique perspectives, gaining opportunities for mentorship, exposure, and connection with collectors and industry leaders worldwide.

Enjoyed this piece? Explore more jewelry content from Future Heirloom!

Between Weight and Lightness: An Interview with Yuki Yoshioka

Yuki Yoshioka is a Tokyo-based jewelry artist whose practice explores the relationship between material, body, and perception. Her work explores subtle shifts between visual perception and physical experience, creating forms that appear dense or structured yet feel unexpectedly light. Drawing from both industrial systems and traditional techniques, she translates these tensions into wearable forms. Through this process, her jewelry functions as a perceptual device, inviting a more attentive and embodied way of experiencing. She is a 2026–2027 One for the Future honoree.

We sat down with Yuki to learn more about the thinking behind her work, the questions that guide her process, and how she navigates the delicate balance between material precision and perceptual uncertainty.

An Introduction to the Practice

If you were telling the story of your work or your jewelry practice to someone for the first time, how would you describe it?

I create jewelry that reveals a dissonance between visual weight and physical lightness. By transforming industrial structures into unexpectedly delicate experiences, my work challenges how we perceive material and value. My practice began with a simple question: how fixed are our assumptions about materials? I was drawn to structures that appear rigid and heavy, yet hold the potential for lightness and flexibility. By working with industrial systems such as aluminum honeycomb, I explore this contradiction—where strength meets fragility, and familiarity shifts into uncertainty. In this process, jewelry becomes more than an object. It becomes a moment of awareness—an encounter that invites curiosity, and gently reawakens a sense of discovery in the everyday.

When Too Much Freedom Becomes a Constraint

Building on that idea of materials and perception, is there a project or concept you once explored but eventually set aside?

I once developed the idea of creating a fully customizable system, where individual parts of a piece could be freely replaced or reconfigured. However, I encountered limitations in the durability of the materials I was working with, which made the idea difficult to realize at the time. More importantly, I began to question the concept itself. The more freedom I introduced, the less clarity the work seemed to hold. I realized that too much openness can actually narrow the possibilities of a piece. As a maker, setting certain constraints is essential—it creates tension, direction, and meaning. Looking back, I see that I wasn’t ready to define those limits yet. Now, I understand that restriction is not a limitation, but a framework that allows the work to exist with intention.

Perception as Environment

If we set jewelry aside for a moment, how do you imagine your work translating into another medium?

If my work were to exist in another medium, it would take the form of a spatial installation that functions as a perceptual experiment. Rather than being worn, the work would be experienced through movement—where perception shifts as one navigates the space. I imagine structures that appear dense and fixed from a distance, yet reveal unexpected lightness, transparency, or instability up close. In this environment, the viewer is not only observing but participating in a subtle test of perception. What is seen and what is physically understood no longer align. Through this shift, the body becomes part of the work itself, encountering a space where certainty is continuously questioned.　

Beyond Rarity and Preciousness

Within that focus on perception and material experience, is there a belief or convention in jewelry that you find yourself questioning or resisting?

I question the hierarchy of materials that often defines jewelry through rarity and preciousness. While I respect the historical significance of materials like gold or diamonds, I am more interested in how a material can shape perception. In my work, materials are chosen not for their inherent value, but for the unexpected experiences they can create—particularly the gap between visual density and physical lightness. For me, jewelry is less about owning value and more about encountering a moment of curiosity.

Navigating Creative Doubt

When your work begins to feel unclear or unsettled, what does that moment of creative doubt look like for you?

A recent moment of doubt emerged while I was trying to expand my work in multiple directions at once. As I explored different approaches, I began to feel that the work was losing its clarity. The core tension I usually focus on—the gap between what is seen and what is felt—started to blur. I questioned whether I was moving away from the essence of my practice. To move through this, I opened the process to dialogue, seeking perspectives from others outside my immediate viewpoint. These conversations allowed me to step back and re-encounter the work more objectively. I realized that doubt itself can be a useful distance—one that helps reveal what is essential. Since then, I have become more attentive to maintaining a clear focus, even when exploring new directions.

What the Work Leaves Behind

When someone encounters your work for the first time, what kind of experience or feeling do you hope stays with them afterward?

I want the experience of my work to begin with a subtle shift in perception—where what is seen does not fully align with what is felt. This moment of uncertainty is not an end in itself, but a starting point. It invites closer attention and often leads to a sense of curiosity or surprise. From there, I am interested in what happens next—how this experience is shared, questioned, or spoken about. In this sense, the work becomes a catalyst for communication. I hope it gives permission to engage more actively with perception and to recognize that meaning is not fixed, but something that can emerge through interaction.

Structure, Clarity, and Perception

Thinking about artistic influence and dialogue across time, if you could create a piece in response to a specific figure, who would you choose?

If I could create a work for “Donald Judd”, I would be interested in responding to his precise and material-driven approach to form. His work has a quiet but powerful way of shaping perception—through structure, proportion, and the direct presence of materials. In response, I would create a piece that maintains this clarity, yet introduces a subtle shift in experience: a form that appears dense and structured, but reveals an unexpected lightness when worn. Rather than relying on illusion, the work would allow perception to unfold gradually—through the relationship between the body, the material, and the act of wearing.

Scent, Structure, and the Senses Beyond Vision

Right now, what kinds of non-traditional materials, systems, or sensory references are you most drawn to?

I am currently interested in how different senses shape perception and memory—particularly through scent, industrial materials, and functional objects. Scent, in particular, fascinates me as a form of perception that is invisible, yet deeply connected to memory. At the same time, I am drawn to industrial components and product design, where form is shaped by efficiency, structure, and use rather than appearance. What connects these interests is that they are not fully understood through vision alone. In my work, I am exploring how these elements can enter jewelry in subtle ways—through structures that respond to movement, materials that shift perception when worn, or forms that suggest a function beyond what is immediately visible. Rather than directly incorporating these references, I am interested in translating their underlying logic into an embodied experience, where perception unfolds gradually through use, memory, and the body.

Why Jewelry?

You’ve described your work as something like a perceptual device. What question do you wish people asked more often about your work?

One question I wish more people would ask is: Why does this work need to exist as jewelry? For me, jewelry creates a unique condition of proximity—where perception is experienced through the body rather than observed at a distance. I think of my work as a kind of perceptual device—something that subtly shifts how we see and feel. It is through this intimate and embodied experience that the work can extend beyond the object itself, opening a space for reflection and communication.

The Space Between Seeing and Feeling

Finally, as we return to the core of your practice, is there a recurring idea or tension that keeps coming up in your work?

A recurring theme in my work is the subtle gap between what is seen and what is physically experienced. I often create forms that appear dense or structured, yet feel unexpectedly light—producing a moment where perception hesitates. I think this continues to appear because I am drawn to the moment when certainty begins to loosen—when something familiar becomes slightly unstable. In this sense, my work functions as a kind of perceptual device, revealing small shifts in how we understand what we see. Within these moments, perception is no longer fixed, but quietly unfolding.

About One for the Future (OFTF)
One for the Future celebrates the next generation of jewelry and creative industry professionals. Each year, the program recognizes honorees for their innovation, craftsmanship, and/or unique perspectives and connects them with mentorship, exposure, and opportunities to engage with collectors and industry leaders worldwide.

Enjoyed this piece? Explore more jewelry content from Future Heirloom!

Turning Clouds into Stone: A Conversation with Chu Winnie Cheung

Chu Winnie Cheung is a Chinese contemporary jewelry artist based in Toronto. Her practice transforms Xuan paper into stone-like forms that explore freedom, language, and our relationship to the natural world.

Through a repetitive process of writing the Chinese character for “cloud,” she then tears, sculpts, sands, and polishes paper into wearable objects. The results appear mineral-like and weighty, yet remain unexpectedly light.

Her work sits at the intersection of calligraphy, ritual, material transformation, and contemporary jewelry. Through this, she explores what she describes as a primordial connection between humans and nature.

Cheung’s work has been exhibited internationally. Notable exhibitions include the Marzee International Graduate Show in the Netherlands and the 33rd Japan Jewellery Competition in Tokyo. She was a 2023 New Talents Award nominee by Klimt02. She also presented her solo exhibition Void at the Craft Ontario Gallery as part of DesignTO 2025. Cheung will participate in the Steinbeisser Project in the Netherlands in June 2026. She is also a 2026–2027 One for the Future honoree.

We spoke with Cheung about paper, freedom, censorship, invisible labor, and the strange beauty of turning clouds into stone.

On Turning Paper into Stone

NYCJW: Your work transforms something as fragile as paper into forms that feel almost geological. How did you arrive at this process, and what story are you telling through it?

CWC: I capture the essence of freedom by transforming fragile paper into objects with the visual weight of stone. My process begins with the written word; I write ‘clouds’ in Chinese calligraphy on Xuan paper, a traditional carrier of thoughts, then tear, smash, sculpt, and carve that language into a dense, mineral-like material. These stone patterns began as a beautiful accident, but now they serve as a permanent contrast to the ephemeral clouds I initially wrote about.

On Leaving a Body of Work Behind

NYCJW: You mentioned this tension between permanence and ephemerality, especially through language and material. Has there been a project or direction you’ve stepped away from because you weren’t ready to fully carry it forward yet?

CWC: I have been working on merging enamel with my paper structures, but I had to put the enamel aside for a while. During the pandemic and the lockdowns, my work was intensely political; I used enamel to create ‘clouds’ on the front of my pieces, while the backs were records of censored posts from Chinese social media. It was a heavy, exhausting process of documenting digital voices before they vanished into the circuit signals.

I’m still not quite ready to fully return to it because of the shift in mindset, as I was moving from recorded censorship to the ‘self-so’ freedom of the natural world. It requires a lot of internal space, and it’s difficult to move between those two worlds. Honestly, when you have a flood of ideas, the fear of not finishing either one properly makes it even more difficult to even start. My process involves building up layers of enamel and then painstakingly grinding them back to uncover the intervals of blue and white, and I need the mental clarity to ensure this technique still translates meaningfully to my current focus.

Rethinking Value and Medium

NYCJW: Your practice already feels incredibly tactile and ritualistic. If those same ideas had to move into another medium entirely, where do you think they would naturally belong?

CWC: It would be a culinary or tea experience. My practice is deeply rooted in the natural world, involving the raw and physical labor of writing, tearing, sculpting, dehydrating and carving. It feels right to translate it into a medium that is literally taken from nature. Just as I transform Xuan paper, the product of trees and bamboo into various shapes, food and tea are the direct ways to consume the essence of the earth.

NYCJW: That focus on transformation and process also seems connected to how you think about value. Is there something within the jewelry or art world that you find yourself pushing against?

CWC: I often struggle with the industry’s obsession with the visible craft, where a piece’s value is somehow closely tied to the obvious complexity, cleanliness, or a ‘decent’ choice of materials. As I transform Xuan paper, which is common and relatively cheap, into smooth, polished stones, my immense labor is often invisible. Since the paper isn’t manipulated to show the workload, a viewer might assume I didn’t do anything to it at all. It’s important for me to find value in the conceptual labor and the transformation of the mundane into the extraordinary.

Finding Freedom in Material Practice

NYCJW: Your work seems to carry both emotional and political weight, even when it moves toward nature and abstraction. Was there a moment when you seriously questioned the direction or purpose of your practice?

CWC: In my previous practice, I worked closely with the reality of social media censorship, creating a large body of work to archive voices before they disappeared. While I was lucky not to have endured the extreme lockdowns seen in Shanghai or Urumqi, the weight of those endless cities stayed with me. My doubt was that, if I am not explicitly recording them, what’s the point of creating? I am not sure if I have moved through this doubt so much as I have accepted it.

One cannot ignore the social incidents happening in one’s own community. My current emphasis towards ‘nature’ and the ‘self-so’ freedom of the material is, in part, born from a sense of surrender, or a realization that the weight of documentation can become too heavy to bear. Seeking freedom within the paper and stone might be my way to continue the dialogue when words feel futile, and my strength runs out.

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The Ritual Life of Writing

NYCJW: Even with that seriousness, there’s also a sense of irony and humor in the way you talk about language and meaning. If you could make a piece for anyone, who would it be?

CWC: I would create a piece for Sir Humphrey Appleby from Yes, Minister. While my own work prioritizes visual simplicity, I am often amused by his mastery of using ‘decent’ grammar to build sentences with immense complexity that ultimately reveal nothing. I think it would be very funny to create a piece that is exquisitely complex yet completely unintelligible, an elaborate circle, perhaps, and write an artist statement so brilliantly convoluted that it says absolutely nothing at all.

NYCJW: Language clearly sits at the center of your practice, not just conceptually but physically. Are there any materials, texts, or rituals you keep returning to as ongoing sources of inspiration?

CWC: Chinese calligraphy and the pictographic nature of the language are my permanent obsessions. Each character is evolved from the visual observation of the world, offering endless inspiration in its structure and history. Besides, the repetitive ritual of practicing calligraphy, being a part of my practice, is a meditative performance where every stroke demands absolute focus and time.

In Chinese culture, paper with written words is believed to carry the souls and spirits of characters; it is something to be deeply valued. Therefore, all the used calligraphy paper from my practice sessions enters my work through the physical transformation: I take these souls, keep them, and sculpt them into my artworks. This allows the essence of the characters and the energy of my practice to exist permanently in a new form. The ink and the Chinese characters are no longer just on the surface, but have become the internal geology of the object itself.

The Illusion of Stone

NYCJW: Because your work holds so much history, ritual, and material transformation within it, I’m curious what kind of experience you hope people have when they physically encounter it.

CWC: I want to evoke a sense of ‘selflessness’, a moment where the ego fades, and the viewer is simply present with the object. I hope the audience can handle the work and feel the surprising lightness of the ‘stone.’ In my practice, the closed, solid form acts as a contrast to the concept of freedom; I hope this tactile surprise gives them permission to question what they see. I want them to realize that this seemingly heavy mineral is actually a collection of time and language in the form of paper.

Why Paper

NYCJW: That moment of surprise of realizing the “stone” is actually paper feels central to the work. Is there a question you wish people asked more often once they discover that?

CWC: ‘Why paper?’ Most people see the stone pattern and assume it’s a mineral. I even got questions like ‘where did you source the stone?’ When I tell them it’s paper, the conversation shifts from aesthetics to the history of the material, its social weight, and the process of writing and forming.

To me, paper exists in a state of duality. On one hand, it is a historical vessel for thoughts and language, often carrying a heavy social weight, a theme I previously explored through the lens of censorship. It is a representative medium that records history, yet remains vulnerable to being redacted or erased. On the other hand, the duality lies in the performance of my making. My process begins with the ritual of practicing calligraphy and writing clouds, embedding these fluid, intangible imageries physically onto the paper. By then tearing, sculpting, and carving that pulp into ‘stones,’ I transform this act of ritual into a permanent, wearable form.

The Recurring Question of Freedom

NYCJW: That duality between fragility and permanence, freedom and containment, seems to thread through everything you make. When you look across your practice as a whole, what keeps resurfacing no matter the form?

CWC: Freedom. Whether it is the fluid freedom of a cloud or the internal freedom of thought, it is the recurring theme that connects everything I make. It keeps appearing because I am interested in how we position ourselves in a world where freedom feels increasingly distant, nature as well. To me, freedom is a state of ‘self-so’. It’s the effort to remain as open and untamed as the materials I sculpt, finding a way to exist authentically even when the modern world attempts to fix us in place.

About One for the Future (OFTF)
One for the Future celebrates the next generation of jewelry and creative industry professionals. Each year, the program recognizes honorees for their innovation, craftsmanship, and/or unique perspectives and connects them with mentorship, exposure, and opportunities to engage with collectors and industry leaders worldwide.

Enjoyed this piece? Explore more jewelry content from Future Heirloom!