20 Minutes With: Taiwanese Jewelry Artist Cindy Chao

Clarissa Sebag Montefiore
May 15, 2023
Barrons.com for PENTA

Taiwanese jewelry artist Cindy Chao made history in 2021 when she became the first founder of a jewelry brand to be appointed the Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres from the French Ministry of Culture. 

Last October, Chao opened the mini-museum Cindy Chao The Art Jewel Gallery in the Regent Taipei hotel. Chao, who is in her late 40s, is based in Asia but travels frequently to Europe to work with craftsmen based there. “By integrating Asian creativity with innovative Western craftsmanship, I hope to write my own story in jewelry history,” she says. 

Penta discusses Chao’s inspiration, her favorite gemstones, and what collectors want. 

Your father was a sculptor and your grandfather an architect. How did they help inspire you to become a jewelry artist? 

I was surrounded by creativity and spent most of my early days with two masters of their own crafts—sculpture and architecture. Their studio and construction site were my playgrounds, and I grew up with blueprints and sculpting tools. To me, holding sculpting tools felt as natural as holding a pair of chopsticks. 

What did you learn from them? 

[My father] taught me the value of observation. … My grandfather was a distinguished architect who designed hundreds of temples across Asia, many of which are now national monuments. He trained me to think outside of the box and see the world objectively in a structural and spatial way. He would open a blueprint and ask me to point out the main entrance of a building. “A main entrance for you could well be the side or back door from another’s perspective,” he loved to say. He showed me that a holistic view originates from a three-dimensional mindset. 

Did you always want to be a jeweler? 

I aspired to become an architect like my grandfather. It was my mother who encouraged me to channel my creative talent into a profession that she felt was more feminine. So instead of building with stones and timber, I chose to sculpt with gemstones and metals. Wax sculpting and lost-wax technique allow me to make miniature jewelry sculptures with precision, the same way an architect designs a building. Although my artistic medium of expression is different from my father’s and my grandfather’s, the spirit is the same. My works are a continuation of my family heritage. 

Read more at the Original source

TAG : Taiwanese Jewelry Artist, Cindy Chao, interview, gems and  jewelry, featured news, diamonds, trends, inspirational, Cindy Chao The Art Jewel Gallery , Asian creativity, Western craftsmanship, Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres