A talent that shines bright
Jeweler, making a name for herself in Europe, finds her unique craftsmanship is attracting a growing audience, Xu Haoyu reports.
On March 15, the academic committee of The Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris held its annual roundtable conference to expand its collection. It was rare, but 12 experts all agreed on welcoming Feuille de Ginkgo, the creation of Feng Ji, into the museum as part of the permanent collection. The artwork has been shown to the public since the middle of April.
This is the first time that a jewelry artist from the Chinese mainland has been recognized by a national museum in Europe, and at the age of 36, Feng has become the youngest jewelry artist whose work was included in the permanent collection of this centuriesold art palace.
“I am honored to show the world with my works that China has the most original contemporary jewelry art and exquisite craftsmanship. In fact, great works can always speak for themselves and touch people from different regions with different skin color and age,” says Feng.
The inspiration of Feuille de Ginkgo comes from a journey to Jardin de Giverny, the botanical garden that inspired Claude Monet.
“I was so enchanted by the species of all exotic plants and the layout of the garden. Even the dream I had there gave me lots of ideas,” says Feng.
Évelyne Possémé, executive director and chief curator of the museum, praised: “The talent of the young artist impressed me so much that we couldn’t miss this Feuille de Ginkgo. Comparing to the centuries-old artworks that are previously collected by the museum, Feng’s unique artistic style symbolizes the future of jewelry.”
Unlike many European and American jewelry designers who come from a family of jewelers and carry on family brands, Feng did not expect to enter the industry.
Born on the shores of the West Lake in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, Feng’s great-grandfather was a royal painter of the late Qing Dynasty (16441911).
After graduating from the China Academy of Fine Arts with a degree in Furniture and Product Design, Feng wanted to study sports car design at the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. However, she ended up flying to the United Kingdom for visa reasons, and claimed studied for a master’s in jewelry design at the University of the Arts London. Later, while working for the jewelry department of fashion brand Alexander McQueen, Feng went on to study gemology at the Gemological Institute of America and the Gübelin Academy in Switzerland, and obtained a certificate in colored gemstone studies.
With an oriental cultural heritage and the adoption of the century-old Western craftsmanship, Feng is not limited by a certain style.
In her jewelry, created with botanical elements such as ginkgo leaves, taro lilies and dahlias, people can see her assimilation of the classic naturalistic style, a style that originated in the early 19th century when jewelers were influenced by the development of archaeology, botany and the Romantic poets to incorporate decorative patterns of plants and fruits into their jewelry.
With a strong emphasis on the penetration of light, shadow and color in a three-dimensional space, Feng shapes valuable stones into an undulating appearance.
She refuses to see emeralds, rubies and sapphires as expansive items, but subversively cuts them into extremely thin stones of varying size, transforming their original intense color into a crystal clear, translucent, almost infinitely transparent brilliance, and pouring out colors creatively like an impressionist.
Until the 14th century, because the size and natural brilliance often determined value, gems were often polished but rarely cut.
The development of gemstone cutting technology was witnessed by the Renaissance era and later improved in the 17th century, making the gemstones sparkle even in the dim light of a candle. The birth of the “Brilliant Cut” at the end of the 17th century made the diamond shine like a pole star in the night sky.
However, traditional jewelry cutting techniques have always sought to maximize the value of the stone by creating greater sparkle with minimal loss. On the contrary, the “Double Rose-Cut” requires a great deal of courage to pursue the style at the expense of the stone.
This bold move of Feng was inspired by Giorgio Morandi’s use of gray in his paintings, which she considers unobtrusive but elegant, and therefore full of possibilities. In collaboration with the European gem-cutting house, she has created “gray” stones of different shades, lightness and saturations to form a subtle gradation of color with gemstone.
Feng’s other original technique developed in 2017, “Floating Set”, gives the jewelry a more harmonious and integrated aesthetic.
Traditionally, jewelry is often set in wax carved metal setting to emphasize the richness of the stone, which gives the jewelry a luxurious appearance, but also has the limitations of a fixed setting.
In order to match the clear, flowing stones, Feng turned to a special support structure with minimal claws, which makes the jewels seem to be floating in the air with incredible lightness.
The technique is time-consuming, placing the gemstones together like a jigsaw, depicting the gradations of color while taking into account the threedimensional undulations. One wrong move can only lead to a complete reversal.
It not only requires the jewelry artist to have a keen sense of color, but also an intuitive sense of space and a precise prediction of the final structure and form.
Since the establishment of the personal jewelry brand Feng J Haute Joaillerie in 2016, Feng is getting increasingly recognized by both the market and experts.
The last masterpiece she created, which is also inspired by the garden of Monet, the Jardin de Giverny necklace was sold in a Phillips’ fall auction for $2.6 million in Hong Kong in December 2020. It broke the record price for Chinese jewelry designers and made her the youngest jeweler to achieve the multimillion auction record worldwide.
Last June, Feng was selected as one of the important female jewelers of the 20th and 21st century by Vivienne Becker, the jewelry historian from London, and invited to take part in Woman to Woman private selling exhibition held by Phillips Auction, along with experts including Suzanne Belperron, Jeanne Boivin, Marina Bulgari and Paloma Picasso.
Graeme Thompson, the global head of Phillips’ jewelry department, described her as the trendsetter from China.
Feng has frequently exhibited at exclusive art fairs including PAD London, Salon Art+Design in New York, Design Miami and ART021 in Shanghai.
As the first jewelry artist from the Chinese mainland who got invited, she is ready to show her creation at Paris Antiques Biennale in the coming November. Prepare the world to be stunned.