Reimagining jade through contemporary jewellery. Interview for Romanian Jewelry Week with Jingya Yang.

Through cutting, carving and wearing, its natural structures, imperfections and unexpected qualities become part of the story, allowing the material to move beyond its traditional associations with rarity and commercial value. From discarded stones to interactive, body-responsive pieces, her work invites us to slow down, look closer and reconsider what we choose to value. In this special interview for Romanian Jewelry Week, we speak about their journey, the ideas behind Standard Answer, Held in Between and Her Silent Migration, and her vision for bringing jade into new contemporary contexts.


How did your passion for jewellery begin? Could you tell us a little about your background and what led you to become an artist?
I don’t think there was a single moment when my interest in jade or jewellery began. My grandfather was a jade carver, and my parents have always been involved in the jade world, so jade and jewellery were simply part of everyday life when I was growing up. Because they were so familiar, I did not initially think of them as a particular passion. It was only later that I realised how much they had shaped my eye and the things I am interested in.

I had also been interested in design from a young age. I really enjoyed drawing and graphic design. Choosing to study jewellery design abroad felt like a natural continuation of my background, but also a way of challenging myself: moving from two-dimensional images into three-dimensional objects. I wanted to work with material and form in a more physical way, and that was what gradually led me towards becoming an artist.


Jingya Yang. Held in Between series, 2026. Hetian jade. Photo by: Jingya Yang.


You describe the whole world as your studio. How does living between China and the UK influence your creative process?
Coming to the UK to study expanded my sense of what contemporary jewellery could be. I grew up with jade through its traditional forms and cultural context, and this remains a very important part of how I understand it. Being in the UK, and travelling and exhibiting more widely, showed me that jade, like other materials, can also continue to develop and take on new possibilities.

For me, this is not about moving away from tradition. It is about allowing different approaches to coexist and enrich one another. That is why I say that the whole world is my studio. I carry a small notebook with me, and whenever an idea, a shape or an unexpected connection comes to me, whether it seems useful at the time or not, I write it down. Moving between places keeps me observant and gives me space to keep expanding the way I think.


Jingya Yang. Held in Between series, 2026. Hetian jade. Photo by: Jingya Yang.


What draws you to nephrite jade, both as a material and through its cultural significance?
What draws me to nephrite jade is its quiet and gentle presence. It does not always demand attention immediately. Instead, it asks you to spend time with it, to look closely and discover it slowly. I am very drawn to that quality. I am also fascinated by its natural internal structure. Every piece contains variations and uncertainties that cannot be fully predicted, and this creates a sense of atmosphere and openness in the making process. Rather than imposing an idea completely onto the material, I have to respond to what is already there.

Its cultural significance matters to me as well. Having grown up around jade, I see it as a material connected to patience, subtlety and careful attention. In a very fast-paced world, jade can offer a different rhythm. It invites people to slow down, spend time with an object, and notice what may not be visible at first glance.


Jingya Yang. Held in Between series, 2026. Hetian jade. Photo by: Jingya Yang.


Your practice connects jewellery with sociology, philosophy and poetry. What do you hope people discover or reflect on through your work?
I do not set out to illustrate sociology, philosophy or poetry. They are simply ways of thinking and feeling that naturally enter my work through jewellery. For me, jewellery is an intimate object. It comes close to the body, but it can also open up larger questions about the systems, habits and values that shape us.

I hope people encounter my work not as something with a single correct interpretation, but as an invitation to pause and think. Sometimes I want them to reflect on how social rules influence individual choices. At other times, I hope the material or form can create a more open and poetic space for personal associations. I am interested in work that leaves room for uncertainty, conversation and different readings.


Jingya Yang. Held in Between series, 2026. Hetian jade. Photo by: Jingya Yang.


What inspired Standard Answer, and how did your reflections on China’s education system shape the project?
Standard Answer began with my experience of the jade industry. Certain kinds of jade are often valued according to rarity, market demand and commercial desirability. When I choose to work with lower priced jade, I often feel that, before people have time to see its beauty, the first question is its commercial value. This made me think about how standards decide what is seen as valuable and worthy of attention.

My reflections on China’s education system gave this question another dimension. In both contexts, there can be an expectation that value, success or correctness should be measured through a shared set of criteria. I became interested in what may be overlooked when one set of standards becomes dominant. Standard Answer is not a rejection of standards themselves. It is a way of asking what they make visible, and what they might leave out.


Jingya Yang. Held in Between series, 2026. Hetian jade. Photo by: Jingya Yang.


How important is audience participation to the meaning of the project?
Audience participation is very important to me because I do not want jade to remain distant, as something that is only looked at or judged. I want people to touch it, wear it and build a direct relationship with it.

At the same time, wearing jade asks for a certain kind of care. It can make you more aware of the object, your body and even small movements. I am interested in that balance between closeness and care. When someone wears the jewellery, it becomes part of their own experience rather than staying as a fixed object made by me. Their touch and awareness complete another part of the work.


Jingya Yang. Held in Between series, 2026. Hetian jade. Photo by: Jingya Yang.


Your work explores interactive and body-responsive jewellery. What interests you about the relationship between the body, movement and self-awareness?
For me, jade creates a gentle kind of awareness. When you wear it, you may become more careful not to knock it, and that small attention can make you more aware of your own movements. It may encourage you to slow down, move more gently and become quieter for a moment.

I am interested in jewellery as something that can change your relationship to everyday movement without giving instructions. It does not force anything. It simply creates a small moment of attention between the body, the material and the surrounding space.


Jingya Yang. Held in Between series, 2026. Hetian jade. Photo by: Jingya Yang.


What did the technical challenges during the making of Standard Answer teach you about precision, imperfection and craftsmanship?
The technical lessons that shape my approach to Standard Answer have come most clearly through making other jade works. While drilling a necklace for Her Silent Migration, the jade sometimes fractured unexpectedly around the diamond burr. In Held in Between, I sometimes polished away too much material and had to reshape the piece. With jade, every action is irreversible.

These experiences taught me that precision does not mean complete control. At first, unexpected breakage or polishing too much felt like a mistake. Over time, I learned to accept these moments as part of working with the material. There is no real way to go back, so you have to be patient, attentive and willing to repeat the process. For me, craftsmanship is not about removing every imperfection. It is about working carefully with what the material allows.


Jingya Yang. Held in Between series, 2026. Hetian jade. Photo by: Jingya Yang.


What made you choose to take part in Romanian Jewelry Week, and what attracted you to the event in particular?
The main reason I wanted to take part in Romanian Jewelry Week this year was the new Growing Gems section. It is dedicated to artists for whom stone cutting itself becomes a creative and conceptual practice, and this feels very close to my own work with nephrite jade.

For me, cutting jade is not only a technical stage. It is a way of responding to the material’s internal structure, its uncertainties and its particular character. Growing Gems offers a context where working with stone can be understood as part of the idea of the work, rather than simply a process of production.

At the same time, Romanian Jewelry Week is an important international platform for contemporary jewellery. As an artist living between China and the UK, I value the opportunity to place my work with jade in a wider conversation with artists from different cultural and creative backgrounds. It feels like a meaningful space to share my own relationship with jade, while also learning from other ways of thinking about material and jewellery.


Jingya Yang. Necklace: Her Silent Migration, 2025. Nephrite jade, 925 silver, leather thread. 


How do you balance conceptual thinking with the physical and technical demands of making jewellery?
I see conceptual thinking and making as part of the same process in my practice. In my series Held in Between, the starting point was the Chinese idea of the square and the circle. I have always been interested in these two forms as a way of thinking about order, boundary and movement. Rather than treating them as opposites or choosing one over the other, I wanted to explore the space in between. For me, that space moves away from a simple division between one side and the other.

The final form sits somewhere between a cuboid and a cylinder. Once I began selecting the Hetian jade, the material became central to the work. I look for areas that have a strong sense of landscape within them, and then gradually narrow the area through cutting. I want the four main faces of each piece to offer different impressions, so that the viewer can keep discovering something new as they look from different sides.

For me, the concept gives the work a direction, but the material shapes how that direction is realised. The technical process requires patience and close attention, because I have to preserve what is already happening inside the jade while making the form. That is where the balance comes from.


Jingya Yang. Necklace: Her Silent Migration, 2025. Nephrite jade, 925 silver, leather thread. 


What questions or directions are you hoping to explore in your future practice?
Future work will continue to be guided by material. Jade remains central to my practice, but I am interested in bringing it into contemporary contexts and allowing it to meet new forms of wearing, looking and interaction.

I hope to make jade more visible to a younger audience. Its traditional and commercial meanings are important, but I also want to show that it can exist alongside them as a contemporary material, open to new experiences and interpretations. I want jade to feel close, relevant and alive in contemporary life.

At the same time, there is still a great deal for me to learn. I want to keep developing both the way I build and think through projects, and my technical skills as a maker. Staying open, humble and willing to keep learning is very important to me. I hope my practice can continue to grow through material, experimentation and time.


Jingya Yang. Necklace: Her Silent Migration, 2025. Nephrite jade, 925 silver, leather thread. 


Could you tell us about Her Silent Migration and your use of discarded jade?
Her Silent Migration grew out of an awareness of how jade is often seen through commercial value. In the jade world, colour, fineness and rarity are central to how a stone is evaluated. These considerations are important, but they are not the only way I experience jade. Some stones with a lower market value can still be beautiful in their own way.

Natural jade often contains water lines, fissures and other variations. For me, these are a normal part of a natural material, rather than simply flaws. What may be seen as imperfect can also be what makes a piece unique and meaningful.

The project uses two pieces of nephrite jade that had been discarded. Working with them allowed the material to move beyond its original commercial assessment. Because cost was not the starting point, there was more freedom to explore their form, internal structure and character. The work became a way of giving attention to material that might otherwise have been overlooked.



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

Jingya Yang is a jewellery designer working with jade through a contemporary, material-led approach. Born into a family of jade carvers, she was raised within traditional craftsmanship, which continues to inform her practice. While studying Contemporary Jewellery in the UK, she began to re-examine jade beyond its conventional aesthetics. Her work focuses on translating the material's inherent qualities into a contemporary design language, exploring how jade can be understood and experienced outside of its established cultural associations.

Instagram: @jingya.yang
 

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.