Review of Ugly, a workshop with Philip Sajet at China Academy of Art

Philip was born and raised at Amsterdam in the Netherlands. He was selected to be the intern of Goldsmith. He has been also invited to be a lecturer in many schools of design and universities for many years. His work was exhibited around Europe, awarding plenty of awards and grants in both America and Japan. Philip is considered to be the most famous goldsmith in Europe.

During two weeks, artist Philip guided students to design their work in creative ways in the workshop. Making students break the boundaries of form, material and technique, presenting various jewelry works.

Artist Philip explained beauty to students with the golden ratio, similarity, Fibonacci sequence and Theoretical knowledge. By this, Philip wanted to highlight that the beauty is normal, while contemporary jewelry need to be different, need to attract attention. Therefore, the theme of the workshop,”Ugly” was settled and work on conceptual jewellery.


Philip Sajet with students at China Academy of Art.


Reviewing the failed work of students before, Philip guided students to absorb inspirations from the failure and find the material which corresponds to ”Ugly” to design for the second time.


Group tutorial with Philip Sajet. Philip Sajet gave the demonstration.


Group tutorial with Philip Sajet.


Presentation by Philip Sajet.


At the end of the workshop, artist Philip emphasized that the most significant thing is not finishing the work, but the thing which you absorbed during the process including the mistakes. Everyone must treat every piece of work with this attitudes.


Students with Philip Sajet.


Tutor: Philip Sajet (Netherlands Artist).
Assistant/Translator: Yao Yao.
Photographer: Zongquan Ling.
Teaching dates: 2018.5.7-2018.5.18
Students: Third-year Undergraduate.
Sponsoring Organization: Foreign Affairs Bureau, China Academy of Art.
Undertaken Organization: School of Art and Craft, China Academy of Art.