Not everyday can you find yourself in a distinctively designed and decorated office in Hong Kong like Wallace Chan’s studio. Guarded by two double doors, the place looks like a mysterious treasure vault to outsiders though, once inside, it’s peaceful and welcoming, with understated lighting and a Zen ambience. As I’m admiring the décor, Chan directs my attention to the rough-looking walls. “I used a rather rugged material to make the walls to create a contrast between them and the jewellery-inlaid sculptures. It’s kind of a metaphor of my creative process,” he explains.

Indeed, for Chan, the road to becoming one of world’s most revered jewellery designers wasn’t exactly a smooth one. Born in the 1950s, “a time when people struggled just to make a living”, Chan didn’t have the luxury of being raised by an artistic family. The only person that remotely resembled an artist was his craftsman uncle. “Seeing him work always made me curious. At that time, there was no free education, so I became an apprentice craftsman at a young age,” he recalls. “People believed that if you had a specific skill, your future would be secured. Therefore I was determined to go down this path, which led me to sculpting.”

His use of gemstones, on the other hand, came later from his desire to convey the aesthetic power of light. However, since large-sized gemstones ideal for sculpting were extremely expensive and hard to procure, Chan was forced to create smaller pieces that blurred the line between art and jewellery. Soon, as gemstones with greater value came in his hands, he began to design actual jewellery. It was a tough learning process at first since he hardly knew anything about inlay or metallurgy. Some pieces he made were perfect to look at but not wearable because they were too heavy, too big, or simply ill-designed. To align his vision and the result, Chan began studying ergonomics. “I also did research on people’s skin colour, psychology, even architecture and furniture, to get a better grasp of what people need and how they think,” he adds.

It is the same devotion that propelled him to invent the “Wallace Cut” in 1987, a 3D carved image using reflective techniques that resemble that of cameos, intaglios and gem faceting. It took Chan two years to finish the first work using the techniques, which require extreme precision in calculation and execution.  The birth of “Wallace Cut” astonished the industry and made him an international name; today, it is regarded as Chan’s signature and legacy. In September 2012, Chan also became the first and only Asian jeweller to have ever participated the prestigious Biennale des Antiquaires in Paris. The trip offered him a new perspective—“Only when you leave your homeland will you realise that you are a foreigner in the eyes of others. At that exhibition, I was not seen as an individual but a representation of the jewellery industry of China and even Asia, its craftsmanship and creativity.”

“In terms of jewellery making, Asia has been following the Western methods for a century and it’s hard to surpass them,” he continues. “But that’s no excuse to be content with the existing situation. I always seek to push things to the next level, trying to develop new techniques that belong to the Chinese.”

Chan believes that sculpting is about expressing the mind and endeavor of mankind through shape, and his favorite subject matters range from Eastern and Western mythology to animals and the nature. “Growing up in Hong Kong, my world view and values were influenced by both Chinese and Western cultures, which share a lot in common fundamentally,” he says. “Nature is also a crucial inspiration for me. Take water as an example: it’s so powerful yet it always flows downwards; it doesn’t have a shape, yet you can shape it anyway you want with different containers. It teaches me to be humble and changeable.” To give back to the nature, Chan recently donated a sculpture work to The Nature Conservancy, a non-profit environmental organization, for its charity auction that took place at the Grand Hyatt on November 16th.

In the video above, Chan talks about being a rebel, a brand and an ascetic. 

Videography by Tyrone Wu