《梁祝》is one of China’s four great folk love stories. In a time when women could not attend school, a young lady dresses as a man to attend school, where she becomes inseparable from a fellow student. When her family later holds her to the marriage already arranged for her, the boy dies of grief. On her wedding day she stops at his grave; the earth opens, and she steps in. From the soil rises a pair of butterflies, finally together.
Industrial Design · Lost-wax cast · 2012
Liang-Zhu Jewelry 梁祝
Three pieces for one love story: a ring for meeting, a hairpin for longing, a butterfly for what comes after.
01 · The Legend
序 · A folk story, a thousand years told
02 · Three Acts
三件，三幕 · One piece for each act
The story is told in three acts. I gave each act one piece of jewelry, and each piece a different part of the body.
A ring, for meeting. Two students at one desk. The ring is the simplest of the three pieces. A circle, the first thing two people make.
A hairpin, for longing. She wore it every day she could not see him. A hairpin lives close to the head, hidden by the hair. A private object that does not need to be seen.
A butterfly, for what comes after. The wings are veined like the real thing. The clasp closes over the heart. At the centre sits a single moonstone, milky and holding what light it can.
03 · Wax
蠟 · Before silver, there was wax
Each piece was carved by hand in green carving wax. The red attachments are sprues, the channels through which silver later finds its way. They snap off when the cast is broken.
04 · In Silver
工藝 · Wax, then metal
Each piece was wax-modeled by hand, then lost-wax cast in silver. The surfaces are left unpolished. They hold the light softly, the way a worn silver coin does. The set stones are raw moonstone, chosen for the milky shift.
First drawn flat, in millimetres.