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UPDATED: December 31, 2011 NO. 1 JANUARY 5, 2012
All That Glitters
Designers will play a bigger role in forging China's jewelry brands
By Ding Ying
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Guo Weijun crafts a tea set made with inlaid gold and jade for his third participation in the fair (WEI YAO)

Growing designers

Jewelry designers are the soul of this industry. An outstanding jewelry designer must be creative, aesthetic and expressive. But designer Ren Jin said it might take another decade for true Chinese masters of jewelry design to emerge.

Becoming a jewelry designer as a career is quite new in China. Universities in China began to introduce jewelry design courses just 20 years ago.

"Most of China's jewelry designers started their career less than 10 years ago, which has led to a gap between the supply and demand sides of the industry, because most jewelry customers are in their 40s," said Ren.

Unlike Ren who has accepted systematic education and works as an independent designer, most of Chinese designers are now employees at jewelry producers. A new designer usually earns about 3,000 yuan ($469) a month for the first couple of years.

"These designers are more like drafters, and it's hard for them to guide the design, production and consumption trends," Ren said.

In addition, about 80 percent of Chinese jewelry producers are family businesses, and in many cases, the owners would rather spend more on advertising than invest in improving design.

And many of designers learned the craft from their masters at workshops. Guo Weijun, a 26-year-old jeweler, is one of them. Guo learned the traditional technique of inlaying gold with jade from a master craftsman when he was a teenager.

Jade has been associated with many virtues in traditional Chinese culture, which explains its popularity in China for thousands of years. It takes at least one month for him to finish each piece of work. He first draws a draft pattern onto a polished jade article. Then he drills four tiny holes every 2.5 mm on the draft line. Next he inlays gold thread of a diameter of 0.3 to 0.5 mm or small gems into the lines of holes he has carved. Finally he moves on to polishing and after much careful burnishing a piece is finished.

"I am happy to be the heir to this ancient craft," Guo said. From 2009 to 2011, Guo has secured orders of 3 million-5 million yuan ($472,440-787,400) annually at the fair.

"It's a career requiring diligence, experience, persistence and talent. Many designers approach 40 when they have accumulated enough experience, knowledge and money to start their own studio or business and have design freedom," Ren said.

Ren suggested that Chinese jewelry producers place more emphasis on design, cultivating their designers or cooperating with independent designers to forging a brand for themselves.

For instance, Wu Fenghua, President of Shenzhen-based jewelry company TTF, had brought his designer team to attend a number of jewelry fairs overseas to learn the international trends and draw inspirations before his company made profits.

Yuqeelin also intends to forging a distinctive style for the brand, one that combines both Chinese and Western aesthetic elements.

"We have good cooperation with gem miners in Brazil, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Myanmar to guarantee our material quality. Now we are recruiting a large group of designers to further develop our own style."

And some companies are going through a major overhaul as children who finished their college education overseas took over the family business from their parents. This generation of managers, armed with Western corporate management theories and marketing skills, is eager to innovate and values design, brand and the global market.

Jewelry magazines also sense the smell of spring for China's jewelry industry. China Gems, which used to be a magazine run by GAC, adopted a more dynamic and consumer focused style.

Huo Yin, a staff member at the magazine, explained that the magazine used to be more like an academic publication focusing on professional knowledge. Now he says the magazine concentrates more on introducing general information on different kinds of precious stones and good designs to its target readership–ordinary people with an interest in jewelry.

As a result of this change, the magazine receives more advertising. The bimonthly publication currently sells over 60,000 copies per issue, and that number rises every month.

E-mail us at: dingying@bjreview.com

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