Artist-Jeweller Cindy Chao Celebrates Two Decades Of Crafting The Almost Impossible
Blurring the lines between high jewellery, extraordinary art and ingenious engineering, Taiwanese jeweller Cindy Chao crafts one-of-a-kind bejewelled marvels for connoisseurs and collectors
Take a tour of the world’s most prestigious jewellery collections presented in seminal galleries and museums, and you will notice that the same names keep cropping up. Such collections celebrate illustrious master jewellers, often major maisons with two hundred-year old legacies, yet there are a select few contemporary visionaries (who can be counted on one hand) that have pushed the boundaries of high jewellery making beyond what we ever thought was possible, in far less time.
Cindy Chao is one such luminary. The Taiwanese designer founded her company – Cindy Chao The Art Jewel – in 2004, making this year her 20th anniversary. The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, and the Victoria and Albert Museum have all incorporated Cindy’s works into their permanent collections, and the critically-acclaimed designer has also participated in many of the world’s most distinguished international art fairs – the Biennale des Antiquaires, the European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF), and Masterpiece London, to name just a few.
In 2021, Cindy became the first Asian jeweller artist to receive the French Knight of the Order of Arts and Literature accolade, and in February 2024 she became the first Asian jeweller-artist to lecture at the prestigious Haute École de Joaillerie in Paris – no mean feat, in just 20 years.
When you admire a Cindy Chao creation close up, it is easy to understand how, and why she has garnered such success. Cindy’s instantly recognisable aesthetic, where the fragility and delicate beauty of organic motifs are brought to glittering life with extraordinary realism, is unparalleled, and each piece smashes the glass ceiling where technical ingenuity is concerned. Cindy’s mantra? Each jewel is a masterpiece that should break down the boundaries between the fine art and fine jewellery disciplines; art becomes jewel, and jewel becomes art. Cindy’s most elite creations – her ‘Black Label’ jewels – are one-of-a-kind pieces that are signed and dated, then presented to clients at invitation-only exhibitions. They are the preserve of connoisseurs and collectors, and they often go on to fetch enormous sums at auction.
Cindy’s jewels are also now regular spectacles upon Hollywood’s red carpets too, with Michelle Yeoh and Matthew McConaughey wearing her designs to this year’s Oscars, while stars such as Julia Roberts, Amy Adams, Salma Hayek, and Sarah Jessica Parker are longer-standing devotees.
When it comes to her signature pieces, Cindy is perhaps best known for her sublime butterfly designs, having unveiled one new butterfly jewel per year since 2008. The designer believes butterflies reflect her own metamorphosis into a jewellery artist, and serve as a reminder that we must live life to its fullest – a sentiment echoed by their voluminous forms and jubilant colours. As if sparkling breath has been blown into their wings, Cindy’s butterflies are extraordinarily life-like and dream-like all at once – with each piece requiring more than 18 months from concept to completion, and precious pavé stones set so meticulously that they appear to be painted upon each sculptural wing.
Sculpture is, indeed, in Cindy’s blood. Her grandfather was an esteemed architect who designed many sacred temples across Taiwan, while her sculptor father trained her as his first apprentice, teaching her to bend and hone natural materials to her touch. Preserving 18th century artisanal techniques, Cindy conceives her designs in wax – known as cire perdue – before her team of master craftsmen begin the task of adorning every surface, ensuring each piece is blanketed with jewels so that it may scintillate from all angles.
It comes as no surprise that to celebrate the business’ 20th birthday, Cindy has pulled out all the stops. Her 20th Anniversary Collection celebrates two signature motifs: the dragonfly and the humble leaf motif of her Four Seasons oeuvre. The flurry of leaf designs explores the flow of time and life through nature’s perpetual cycles, with Cindy relying upon 12 master craftsmen to forge their ultra-light metal work. To create these treasures, Cindy’s artisans are only able to work for three to five hours a day, due to the strain placed on their eyes by the intense magnification of their microscopes. Each leaf gleams with around 1,500 gemstones set on a titanium base that is just 1.77mm thick, and the finished piece weighs just 22 grams. The intense strength of titanium is juxtaposed with the delicate beauty of each miniature jewel, creating a fascinating dichotomy that feels symbolic of Mother Nature herself.
The dragonflies continue this discourse. While ethereal and elegant, dragonflies also boast incredible physical ingenuity and are able to speed through the skies at up to 100 kilometres per hour. Each dragonfly brooch features at least 13 different gemstones, in over 50 myriad hues, illustrating the designer’s keen eye for nuance as well as form. If her butterflies symbolise new life and metamorphosis, and the leaf designs tell her story through the changing seasons, then it is the dragonfly that tells of the designer’s persistence and unerring devotion to blazing a trail. Perhaps at times, in comparison to corporate behemoths, Cindy may have felt as if she were flying against the wind, but this collection proves that the wind has changed. Cindy is soaring into the history books once more, with the mind of an architect, the hands of a sculptor, and the dreams of an apprentice turned master.
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