Jade: Material Expressions
Material Expressions
Jade is treated as a living visual material—not only as inherited ornament.
This bachelor project begins with jade’s colour, translucency, grain and fragmented forms. Two connected directions were explored: contemporary jewellery proposals and a hammered-silver tea service. The drawings test how reclaimed arcs could be reframed at the scale of the body, while the realised tea set carries the same material language into touch, use and shared ritual.
Fragments, translucency and green become a contemporary vocabulary across body and object.
Existing jade arcs and offcuts set the proportions. Their irregular edges are not disguised; they become the starting point for composition, rhythm and connection.
Jade becomes contemporary when its cultural weight is carried through a new visual relationship—not erased, but reframed through fragmentation and use.
One reclaimed bangle becomes a family of handles, grips and points of contact.
The bangle was not treated as a single intact ornament. Its curve was divided and reassigned across the teapot, cups and stirrer so that reuse determined both the visual system and the object family.
The selected direction becomes a complete silver tea ritual.
Hammered silver provides a reflective, irregular field; reclaimed jade becomes handle, grip and focal point. The precious material is brought into touch, use and shared ritual.
Jewellery proposals extend the material language without being presented as fabricated outcomes.
Research remains visible through the hand: cut, fit, solder, texture and assemble.
These images support the collection rather than lead it: they show how reclaimed jade was selected and fitted to hand-raised silver forms through repeated physical tests.
The realised outcome is a fabricated hammered-silver tea service using reclaimed jade as handles, grips and accents. Jewellery and alternative vessel studies remain documented as unbuilt design directions rather than fabricated outcomes.
FormatIndependent jewellery and object project · 2024
ContributionIndependent bachelor project. I led the visual direction, material research, jade processing, jewellery and object development, silversmithing, fabrication and final object photography.
MethodsVisual direction · Jade processing · Design drawing · Jewellery design · Silversmithing · Object photography
See the complete project,
in its original sequence.
The webpage foregrounds the project’s argument. The PDF preserves the full research, visual development and documentation.