Spot the Designer - Qi Han/ China

When have you started creating jewelry? How did this passion come about?

When I got the offer from the China Academy of Art, majoring in sculpture, I began to learn to observe and shape beauty from a three-dimensional angle. In my opinion, sculpture and jewellery are interlinked and three-dimensional beauty runs through. In my second year of university, I made some small jewellery with resin, but just for fun. Later, a jewellery company came to me for cooperation. So, that was a chance for me to think about maybe I can treat jewellery design as a career.

Is there a self-portrait piece that speaks most about you?

The self-portrait piece that means a lot to me is ‘Forget and Remember’, which is also my first jewellery project. It is a series of jewellery to commemorate my grandmother. Grandma accompanied me throughout my childhood. In my heart, she is a graceful and intelligent Chinese woman. The idea of designing jewellery for her is more like my own spiritual sustenance, discussing the concept of life and death, love and memory. The silver tube swings together with the overturning silver strip in the palm and the sand clock waggles, which represents the impermanence and natural rules about time. It seems that there is nothing on the left side but it sinks as my obsession with family affection increases its weight. Actually, I put my self-made hairpin in it.

In my childhood, grandma always looked at me at the entrance of the kindergarten. That window frame had fixed in my freeze-frame. The natural texture of the wood resembled a frame. So I combined the silver and wood, sprinkled the silver crumbs, and burned them, which represent love and time.

Which material have you not yet used is a temptation and a challenge for you?

When studying in the college system, my large percentage of work is handmaking, which may also be because of my own choice of colleges and universities, focusing on the expression of ideas, to select materials. This comprehensive material may even be self-created. However, because of the epidemic, after spending too much time by myself, I began to try the design method of software. Indeed, it brings a certain degree of convenience, but there are also restrictions on the selection of materials. In my opinion, handicrafts have a temperature. Although the shape may not be perfect and sharp, it contains the emotions of the creator. But we have to say, in a special period, technology is an effective means of production. At the same time, it gives people who have to stay in a relatively closed place a space to appreciate and explore the beauty.

How do you see the future of contemporary jewelry?

In my perspective, the contemporary jewellery market is quite broad, and the public's aesthetics is constantly developing. One of the most important tasks of artists and designers is to express their ideas and put them into practice while making the audience immersed. To be honest, the combination of art and the market is difficult. In my own experience, art schools focus on handicrafts and expressing ideas, the depth of thoughts, which is correct to some extent. But, maybe they can arrange for students who prefer to be a designer to practice, get familiar with the whole process of becoming an independent designer, and learn how to connect well with the market. As for development, designers and artists play an essential role in inheritance, which needs to be combined with culture.

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