Beijing Designer Jewellery Showcase.

British Jewellery & Giftware International, BJA, UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) and Birmingham-based designer Fei Liu, have joined together to offer a UK jewellery designer event in Beijing, China. Fei has recently established a presence in China, opening two concessions in Beijing department stores, and has built a reputation and a customer base among affluent Chinese consumers. The main objectives of the event are to raise the awareness of UK jewellery design and to provide an opportunity for designers to make new contacts and sales in this growing consumer market.

Nine UK jewellery companies representing some of the best in British design will be showcasing their products at the highly prestigious Shin Kong Place in Beijing to a variety of celebrities, VIP guests, foreign dignitaries and press.

This magnificent and highly decorative silver vase is a copy of the famous Warwick Vase, an ancient Roman marble vase that was discovered at Hadrian’s Villa, Tivoli, in about 1771. It made by the Matthew Boulton and Plate Company in Birmingham in 1827 and is part of the Birmingham Assay Office Collection. It has a lid and stands on a square plinth. The vase features acanthus ornamentation, ivy leaves, berries and a group of classical figures.
This vase is a fine example of the high quality silverware that was being produced in Birmingham in the 19th Century. Matthew Boulton (1728-1089) was a great Birmingham industrialist, businessman and entrepreneur. He ran the famous Soho Manufactory and exported fine quality silverware such as this vase around the world. Boulton also successfully petitioned Parliament to have an Assay Office set up in Birmingham and it opened on 31st August, 1773.
The opening of The Birmingham Assay Office was of huge benefit to other Birmingham silversmiths and Boulton’s legacy still lives on as The Assay Office and the Jewellery Quarter which developed around it are still thriving nearly 240 years later.

Roland Green was born in to a family of Jewellers and in 1906 he and his younger brother Lionel took control of Charles Green, a manufacturing jeweller established in 1824 by their grandfather.
Being the elder of the two brothers Roland was very much the senior partner and under his leadership the company excelled in the manufacture of wedding rings and signet rings. Secretly however, Roland’s private passion lay with the design and crafting of ornate lockets and cufflinks.
From the outset Roland’s jewellery was designed to become future heirlooms and one day be handed down from generation to generation. The feel of a Roland Green locket is like no other and these luxury pieces of jewellery continue to be handcrafted in the family factory. Over one hundred years later in 2011 the sixth generation family owner of Charles Green decided to honour his great uncle by producing the world’s finest lockets in his name.

As a designer/maker specialising in silversmithing Chris Perry enjoys the generation of ideas and resolving problems through design and welcome working with clients to develop ideas to their specification and needs. He likes to develop and evolve ideas through the process of making, and believes that designing and making is a partnership. Perry enjoys the challenge of infusing mechanics, scale, and form to produce modern silver tableware. His silversmith work is contemporary yet based on conventional techniques and objects that are part of our everyday ritual.

Dorit Schnieber is a London based independent jewellery designer and maker of contemporary handcrafted jewellery.
Her favourite materials to work with are a combination of precious materials including silver, gold, beads, gem stones and pearls. She uses gemstones such as amethyst, tourmaline, aquamarine, garnet and iolite and many more, as colour becomes an increasingly strong theme for her new designs.
Inspired by natural forms, she translates these studies of the countryside and parks into minimalist crisp clean shapes with defined lines and textures that are very feminine and wearable.
Quality of manufacture in all intricate detail is an integral part of Dorit’s jewellery. Her designs are often received as transcending past and contemporary fashion trends making for longevity of appeal of her jewellery ranges.

Award winning jewellery designer Leyla Abdollahi graduated from Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design after studying fine art in Iran and working in the fashion industry. She later enrolled in a gemmology course, where she further developed her passion in gemstones. Since then, she has been creating jewellery on commissions for private clients and companies in the UK and abroad, as well as bringing out her own collections handcrafted in gold and vibrant gemstones.
The understanding of fashion and jewellery gained from this background comes together with Eastern and Western influences transforming into primarily conceptual and one of a kind jewels. They are truly appreciated by those who feel pure joy from allowing works of art to accompany them wherever they may be. Loved by their wearers, these rare and matchless creations have an ability to provoke both visual pleasure and sense of touch. Thus, objects that have a sentimental value are translated into pieces that will last forever.

Coming from a Persian background, Mahtab Hanna studied at the Hampstead School of Art, Central St. Martins and London Metropolitan University’s Sir John Cass Department of Art, Media and Design. She has successfully created a fusion of contemporary high fashion couture design and retail wearability.
Her designs are radically different from others with culture, character and thoughts playing a large part in the inspiration process leading to her creations. She enjoys using traditional, as well as new techniques on both precious and non-precious materials and stones using only ethical materials, highlighting just how beauty can be achieved through design.
Mahtab produces both couture and retail pieces. Mother Nature is a fascination and inspiration to her, and some creations break with convention and re-write the rules as to how jewellery is made, its controversial message and how it’s worn, whilst others remain true to the spirit of what she calls “dichotomy jewellery” - as the veins of a leaf bring it life, her creations using different materials, bring verve to the design.

SHO’s luxurious collections offer a fashionable fresh take on jewellery design and strive to make fine jewellery fun!
Founded and spearheaded by goldsmith and gemmologist, Sarah Ho, whose passion for gemstones, together with inspiration from her strong family heritage and important milestones in her life, has led to innovative designs and avant-garde jewellery collections.
Each Life Chapter is symbolised through outstanding pieces of jewellery in silver; silver plated with 18 carat gold; as well as special fine pieces in 18 carat gold with diamonds and precious gemstones.

London based designer Tomasz Donocik was born in Poland and raised in Austria after graduating from the Royal College of Art, Donocik worked for internationally renowned jeweller Stephen Webster.
Donocik’s body of work boldly reinterprets modernity through subverting motifs of classicism and masculinity. His inspirations bring together literature, architecture and surrealism to redefine jewellery for the contemporary accessories wearer.
With the skill of an artisan, and unrestricted by the constraints of traditional jewellery design, Donocik’s work aims to challenge preconceptions of self adornment. Through the sensitive fusion of materials his bold, masculine and often androgynous design inject the discipline with new meaning and form.

William Cheshire designs and makes jewellery for women and for men. Working from his Hatton Garden studio, all the pieces are made in-house and follow a creative design lead path from start to finish, whether for stores, boutiques or private customers.
His inspirations come from the diverse polarization of the classical, to the freethinking ethos of punk/pop culture. This mix gives the work an exciting and original feel combining elements of the familiar, with more diverse and enigmatic themes.
With silver forming the majority of the work, William has turned to stunning gold and rhodium plating techniques to enhance the design. Combining enamel detailing with precious stone setting, the lasting effect creates desirable jewellery with colour, variation and style.