Jewellery for a future without us. Interview for Romanian Jewelry Week with Fangjing Hu

ROJW spoke to Fangjing Hu about the stories materials can carry, the value of making by hand, the fragility of enamel and wax and what jewellery might tell future generations about the world we live in today.


Where did your passion for jewellery first come from, and what was it about the medium that made you want to keep exploring it?
As a playful child, I was always curious about details. I could spend hours observing things around me, from tree bark and fish skin to architecture, oil paintings, and objects made thousands of years ago in museums. I was constantly collecting these details in my mind.

I think jewellery became the natural medium for all these observations because it is three-dimensional, colourful, and human. It is something that can be worn, touched, and reacted to. I wanted a medium that could carry as much of my curiosity and creativity as possible, and jewellery gave me that space.


Fangjing Hu. Necklace Pocket Jewellery, 2025. Copper and brass plated silver. Photo by: Zhixin Mai.


If your jewellery could come from a future museum 500 years from now, what story would you want archaeologists to tell about it?
Perhaps they would say: “This is a piece of jewellery made by one of the last generations of humans, using the waste left behind by their civilisation.” In my imagined future, humanity has almost disappeared after the AI revolution. Even when the last generation tried to destroy or hide the electronic components that had shaped their world, they could not completely stop the development of AI.

Centuries later, people discovered some of these mysterious fragments. They did not understand what the chips had been used for. They only recognised that they were unusual and valuable-looking materials, so they incorporated them into jewellery, perhaps believing they could bring energy or good fortune. Only much later did they discover what these objects had really been, something their ancestors had once tried to leave behind.


Fangjing Hu. Necklace from Reverse Archaeology series, 2023. Discarded computer and projector components, brass, resin. Photo by: Fangjing Hu.


Your imagined future turns today’s electronic waste into tomorrow’s jewellery. What does this reversal say about our obsession with progress?
As someone who grew up with the rapid transition from computers to smartphones and now to artificial intelligence, I have experienced how quickly technology can change our everyday lives. With each step forward, it sometimes feels that we have very little time to pause and ask whether we actually want to keep moving in the same direction. AI is increasingly becoming an external brain that we carry with us, encouraging us to make things faster, more efficient and more intelligent.

But I often think about the value of slower moments, writing by hand, reading, observing, or simply daydreaming without feeling that we are wasting time. Perhaps my imagined future is asking whether progress always has to mean acceleration. If we had the chance to begin again, I would like to imagine a society that could develop technology more slowly, with more time to decide what is actually worth advancing.


Fangjing Hu. Bangle from Reverse Archaeology series, 2023. Discarded computer components, brass, resin. Photo by: Fangjing Hu.


If technology disappeared tomorrow, which piece of jewellery would you want humanity to remember you by and why?
I would choose my Sound of Nature ring. For me, when technology disappears, nature remains. We can walk through it, grow things in it, read books, talk to other people, and learn through direct experience. The ring itself could be made without modern technology: hand-carved wax, melted and cast silver, soldering, and hand engraving to create the details of leaves.

These are skills that have existed for centuries, and similar jewellery-making techniques can be traced back to ancient civilisations such as Egypt. I like the idea that jewellery can survive beyond technology because the fundamental act of making with our hands is something deeply human.


Fangjing Hu. Ring Sound of Nature from Fragments of Growth series, 2025. Copper, silver. Photo by: Fangjing Hu.


You work with materials that resist complete control. When wax breaks or enamel behaves unexpectedly, do you see it as failure, collaboration, or a form of authorship by the material itself?
I see it as a form of authorship by the material itself. Enamel, for example, can break when it does not have enough structural support, or when it becomes too thick. These are things that cannot always be understood beforehand, sometimes you only learn them through experimentation. If I am pursuing the seemingly permanent beauty of enamel, I also have to understand its weaknesses.

Knowing both its strengths and its limitations becomes part of the making process. I feel something similar with green wax. It is strong and light, but also surprisingly brittle. Once I understand its behaviour, the material almost feels like a new friend. There is a particular fulfilment in learning how to work with its nature rather than simply trying to control it.


Fangjing Hu. Brooch: My name is Bubble Coral from Breathing Forms series, 2019. Silver, enamel. Photo by: Fangjing Hu.


Can jewellery preserve a civilisation in the same way a fossil preserves a fragment of life? What traces of our present do you think your work might carry into the future?
That is a beautiful description. I think every artwork carries the artist’s own experiences and observations of their time. My work might tell future generations that, after the experience of lockdown, some artists began looking back towards nature and paying more attention to the environment around us. At the same time, Reverse Archaeology reflects on our relationship with technological development. By placing traditional jewellery forms alongside broken electronic chips, the work records a moment when we were questioning what technological progress meant to us.


Fangjing Hu. Necklace and earring from Reverse Archaeology series, 2023. Discarded computer and projector components. Photo by: Fangjing Hu.


You describe yourself through several identities, Chinese, Asian, sensitive, female. If each identity were a material, what would they be, and how would they interact in one piece of jewellery?
Chinese would be a blue-and-white bone china bowl. Asian would be a piece of salty seaweed. Sensitive would be a piece of transparent white silk, and female would be transparent silicone. I imagine the bone china bowl holding the seaweed inside. The silk wraps around it like a gift, delicate and beautiful, but loose enough to allow the seaweed to move freely and sometimes release the smell of the ocean. The silicone would melt into the shape of the bottom of the bowl, creating a soft connection between all the materials. The whole piece could eventually become something wearable, perhaps a necklace or a bracelet.


The Jewellery Quarter is built around generations of making. What does it mean to make something by hand in a place where the past is still physically present around you?
It feels very natural to me. I am surrounded by generations of knowledge and experienced jewellery makers, and help is often just a short distance away. I can feel that making is almost part of the identity of this place. 


What if sustainability is not about making something new from waste, but about learning to see value in something we have already decided is worthless?
With the electronic chips I use, there is often no significant value left in the precious metals or silicon, and they can no longer be reused in electronic products. They might otherwise be burned or buried, which can contribute to air and soil pollution. But when I look closely at them, I find beauty in their lines, structures and repeated electronic elements. Instead of treating them only as waste, I can reorganise them and give them another context.


Imagine someone discovering your collection centuries from now, without knowing anything about our technology, culture or way of life. What would you hope they understand about us from the jewellery alone?
I would hope they understand that we were once fascinated by technological development, but eventually began to question it and chose to return to simpler forms. Perhaps they would see that, even in a highly technological age, we were still looking for nature, human touch and something simple enough to wear on our body.


Fangjing Hu. Necklace from Reverse Archaeology series, 2023. Discarded computer and projector components, brass, resin. Photo by: Fangjing Hu.


What made you choose to take part in Romanian Jewelry Week, and what attracted you to the event in particular?
I participated in Romanian Jewellery Week last year, and I was impressed by its professional organisation and, especially, by the opportunities it creates for jewellery artists to meet, exchange ideas and have their work seen.

I also met Andreia Gabriela Popescu and David Sandu, and I was attracted not only to their work, but also to their personalities and the way they approach the jewellery community. I wanted to use this opportunity to get to know this group of artists better.
I think people with similar ways of thinking naturally find each other.


What are your plans for the future, and how do you see this residency shaping your next steps? Are you thinking about pursuing further courses or studies, developing your own practice, or taking your work in a different direction?
My plan is to meet more people and listen to different perspectives and audiences, while continuing to find my own direction, what stories I want to tell, and what stories people are interested in hearing. This residency gives me both the space to develop my artwork and an environment where I can be surrounded by people with similar interests and ways of thinking. In the future, I would like to explore the boundaries between commercial jewellery and artist-made jewellery, and find a way for these two sides of my practice to communicate with each other.



From September 30 to October 4, 2026, Bucharest will host the seventh edition of Romanian Jewelry Week, Romania’s largest international event dedicated to contemporary jewellery.
More than 300 designers from over 50 countries will bring a diverse range of perspectives, practices and sensibilities from the international contemporary jewellery scene to the Romanian capital.

For the full programme, visit www.romanianjewelryweek.com


 

About the Interviewee

Fangjing Hu is a jewellery designer with a layered identity — Chinese, Asian, sensitive, female — and currently an MA Jewellery student at Birmingham City University. With over 10 years of passion for the jewellery industry, she aims to integrate her cultural heritage and sustainable values into her personal work. Rather than merely criticizing waste, she explores practical and accessible ways to embed sustainability into everyday life. She is working toward establishing a sustainable jewellery brand rooted in cultural depth and practical values.

Instagram: @hfangjing

 

About the author

Alexandra Bujenita is the PR manager of Romanian Jewelry Week team, Art developer of Creative team of Imbold Cultural Foundation, PR account at Hello Menthol.