Designer spins tale of ancient spun gold
Print Edition
Eight years ago Matty Ruan was a successful senior executive at a Nasdaq-listed company specializing in personal care products. Then she was captivated by antique gold hairpins auctioned by Sotheby’s. Today she is a jewelry designer and head of her own jewelry brand considered to be one of China’s top domestic luxury brands.
Ruan’s works are both reproductions and her own creations that draw on Chinese motifs and use precious metals, stones and traditional techniques, such as “gold hair spinning” or creating works of spun gold.
Known as a master of creating antique-style Chinese jewelry, Ruan even was able to bring a Chinese national treasurer back home — by exchanging her own spun gold phoenix statue for the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) phoenix that was looted in 1860 by Anglo-French forces from the old Summer Palace in Beijing.
The 36-cm-high phoenix, one of the Jiajing Emperor’s favorite ornaments, had been displayed in Paris where Ruan saw it. She later persuaded the owner, the descendant of an army officer, to accept her exquisite gold replica in exchange.
That recovered phoenix was exhibited along with Ruan’s own antiquity-like creations and her collected Ming and Qing (1644-1911) jewelry. The show in the Bund area last month was the first time the phoenix was displayed to the Chinese public.
Collectors and experts expressed awe on seeing her works, including a finely wrought bridal necklace of gold, tiny pearls and dragon and phoenix.
“As I look back, I feel that I was destined to create jewelry,” Ruan said in an interview as she delicately lifted a classic teapot and served tea.
In 2005 Ruan was a successful supervisor in a major enterprise when she went to a Sotheby’s auction in Beijing where she was enamored of a pair of Qing Dynasty hairpins.
They had already been sold but she became fascinated with antique and imperial-style jewelry and realized that there was almost no such jewelry made today.
“Through the perfect shapes and designs of the hairpins, I felt as if I had seen the owner of the hairpins, a beautiful lady, as well as the master who designed and made them,” Ruan said.
She searched antiques markets for remarkable jewelry to no avail; much of the craftsmanship had disappeared.
She decided to change careers and invest everything in reviving ancient jewelry crafts, especially spinning gold.
Melted gold is spun into hairlike threads that are woven into jewelry and artwork. Meticulous skill is required, lest the threads snap or the strands melt together.
Then her journey in search of artwork became the longer and more difficult mission of finding the few craftsmen who could still spin gold.
“I told myself I could not let such beautiful skills become extinct and I should do more than spend money to collect the artwork that remained,” she said. The few remaining craftsmen are elderly and poor, unable to buy gold and gems; instead they create bronze work to make ends meet.
At a shabby house in rural Beijing Ruan met craftsman Cheng Shumei, who became her master.
She began to study with Cheng and design jewelry art resembling Chinese imperial jewelry.
A spun-gold necklace titled the Happiness of the Phoenix was Ruan’s first major work, and remains her favorite. She wove a gold foundation and set it with many red gems. It was purchased by a private collector. After studying for three years, Ruan opened her own studio in 2008. She also recruited paid apprentices.
Now, Ruan’s C Oriental Luxurious Jewelry can spin gold thread only 0.2mm in diameter.
Her work was coveted by collectors and she exhibited works at Paris Fashion Week in 2010 — but she made the mistake of failing to declare her jewelry art to Chinese Customs when she went abroad.
When she returned she had to pay several million yuan in fines for “smuggling” her own artwork back into China.
To pay the fines and reclaim her jewelry, Ruan invested everything in a rush to buy gold and gems. She mortgaged her apartment and sold her luxury bags and garments.
She then urged her experienced craftsmen to produce eight masterpieces in two weeks.
“I told myself and my colleagues that this was a fight to win or die,” she said. Everyone rose to the challenge, the works sold for very high prices, enabling Ruan to pay the fine. “I have never regretted my dedication to jewelry designing,” Ruan said. “I rejoice.”
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