Art & Zen

Meet Wallace Chan. He is the iconic jewellery designer whose creative forces go beyond jewellery. Most sought after by the elegant divas and acclaimed art collectors, Wallace Chan has become a name to reckon with. Leading auction houses such as Christie’s and Sotheby’s, as well as world-class museums and galleries, exhibit Wallace Chan jewellery and artwork. Imperial families and the glitterati brigade are lifetime patrons of this heady designer’s work. Driven by passion, elevated by innovation and infused with natural elements, his designs are a page turner in the gem and jewellery industry. “The nature is a selfless source of inspiration which benefits me by adding to my designs the soulful touches, and guides me towards a world where emotions and materials sing in harmony. Each piece of my jewellery art has its own nature, its own innate character and quality,” expresses the legendary designer.

Wallace Chan draws on years spent working on Buddhist art, for pieces with strong symbolism. A former sculptor, turned cameo artist, the Hong Kong based designer creates more than just jewellery. He weaves a story around each piece that lends his designs an ethereal quality. Highly inspired by nature and holy animals of the eastern philosophies, his designs are an entrance to a fantasy world. There are two cores to his creative process—human existence and jewellery as a symbol. “To me, creativity starts with the very fact of my own existence. If I erase every preconceived concept and frame of reference that I have, start from an empty beginning and look at everything with the eyes of a baby, that’s when creativity comes in. When designing a jewellery, if you can erase yourself and enter into a dialogue with the stone you hold in your hands, creativity will come naturally,” explains Wallace.

His designs are versatile, innovative and true conversationalists. “I strive for fluidity, movement, and changing light. I don't want to just create jewellery that features a lot of expensive stones set in an appealing way. I want dramatic pieces, jewellery that never ceases to amaze the beholder with newly discovered elements, different sensations and delightful montage effects that add to the special story of each of my pieces,” says he.

They say only when you lose a something truly special to you, you make it your goal to find it within you or recreate. Wallace too, faced a hurdle where he lost his dear friend and mentor but not letting it affect him adversely, he took it as a boost to become spiritually connected to life making his creativity further refined.

“In around the year of 2000, one of my good friends, who was also an inspiring mentor to me, passed away, I felt like I lost my backbone, thus I followed a Master to a journey around countries practicing Zen. After about 6 months, I began to think about how the limitless world of thinking can break through the material world that is full of limitations. There is no end to the size of a jewel, and there is no way to obtain the biggest and the best, thus we should instead seek spiritual enhancement, and a designer’s duty is to display the jewellery’s depth,” the spiritual designer reminisces.

While talking about his foray in this glittering world of gem and jewellery, he shares,” I grew up in Hong Kong, spending my youth mastering Eastern sculpture and the Western art of gemstones. After twenty years of sculpting I traveled to Europe to study the art of this Continent.” This intriguing journey of life can be seen in his designs. Not restricting himself to sculptures, he gained a grip over carving and mastered the art of cameo and intaglio carving techniques. In the mid 1980s he invented the ‘Wallace Cut’ - a carved image using reflective techniques that resemble that of cameos, intaglios and gem faceting. This laid the foundation stone for the exciting onset of his career as a jewellery designer.

His adventures in working with colourful gemstones, varied precious metals and innumerable textures have added to the grace of millions of divas across the world. His designs emit an ‘experience-another world’ edge. The obsessive-compulsive need to create each piece as an exclusive piece of art fills him with creative visions. “My perception towards life urges me to experiment with different shapes, different outlines, and the chemical reactions of different metals, until they seem right as a vehicle to express my feelings, to tell the unique story of each piece of my jewellery art,” says Wallace.

An artist’s mind is a restless mind with an ocean of ideas and bustling creativity but very few take the best out of it and carve a niche for themselves. Wallace Chan is one of them. After mastering the art of sculpturing and carving, he then entered the ‘Buddhist art’ stage which channeled his creativity and energies in the right and balanced direction. He created large sculptures most often for revered monasteries which too are a symbol of his extraordinary talent. In the year 2000 he created a Great Stupa for Taiwan's Fo Guang Shan, bestowing upon him a great admiration of Buddhist art lovers.

But, was the carving; sculpturing, etc enough for his mind to be at rest? A true artist can never have enough on his plate. Wallace began exploring fresh faceting techniques, lighting, colours, metallurgy and ergonomics with an aim to create a ground-breaking collection. After years of delving into blending, casting and smelting titanium and metal, Wallace Chan successfully discovered the ‘Titanium Jewellery’ technique. In the world-renowned Baselworld 2007 he launched a new series of fine jewellery featuring titanium as the new key element of the collection. He created a glorious new fine jewellery concept, ‘wearable sculpture art’. “Titanium possesses a lot of positive qualities, which provide great application potential for jewellery making. It possesses the very condition for the sculpture feeling that I want to endow my jewellery design with. But the problem with titanium is it resists casting, stone setting and inlaying, and it does not mix easily with other stones and jewels. It was a long struggle to ‘tame’ this material. I made it in the end, and once I did, I opened up limitless potentials,” exclaims Wallace.

“Precious stones fascinate me with their brilliant colors, guide me with their textual lines, inspire me with their various shapes and sizes, and touch me with the language of their soul. I don't want to just create jewellery that features a lot of expensive stones set in an appealing way. I want dramatic pieces, jewellery that never ceases to amaze the beholder with newly discovered elements, different sensations and delightful montage effects that add to the special story of each of our pieces. But, I never restrict myself to one kind of material. As I keep reinventing myself, you can expect new materials and techniques from me. Now it’s titanium but it could be some other materials in the future. ” is Wallace’s quick repartee when quizzed about his favorite material palate and inspirations.

Talking about butterflies and fireflies as one his core inspirations, he says, “Butterflies are short-lived, but I wish to prolong their beauty and lives through transforming them into jewelry pieces.

The butterflies in the ‘Forever Dancing’ series symbolize that ‘I still have life’. I want to let people know that though their lives are brief, they make us feel their beauty, and the jewellery is a memory for people to cherish.” Optimally utilizing his passion for coloured gemstones, he brought about a revolutionary collection made up of incandescent green gemstone, Jade. Wallace Chan used his sense of lighting and all-embracing gemstone knowledge to create a jade distillation and brightening technique that sends light racing and pulsating along jade surfaces, enabling the green refractions to magnify each other and sharpen the dark green colours. It is no surprise then this technique received a copy-right of invention.

His bright journey into the gem and jewellery world is marked by several accolades and honours. In 2009 Wallace Chan’s dedicated counters were launched in New York City’s esteemed Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus stores nation-wide. By 2010, he was the first contemporary jewellery artist ever to be invited by the Capital Museum in Beijing to hold a solo exhibition at the distinguished and imperial museum. Yet another luxurious feather in his cap is the showcase of his fine jewels at the prestigious 26th Biennale des Antiquaires in Paris. Wallace’s collection titled ‘The Path to Enlightenment – Art & Zen’ is largely inspired by nature and features creations such as the dragon-inspired Inheritance Brooch and ‘Whimsical Blue’, featuring a 16.17-carat tanzanite center stone and embellished with Kashmir sapphire, lapis lazuli, jadeite, diamonds and sapphires.

With hordes of prestigious accolades and an endless list of lifetime patrons, one may expect Wallace Chan to have sky-height expectations and a structured plan, but in alignment to the oriental philosophy, his motto is very simple. “My dream can be realised tomorrow if I do my work well today. When work is done to perfection, it becomes sacred. My focus is on the present, and I seldom plan too far ahead,” he concludes.