Imagine a butterfly in mid-flight, its iridescent wings spread open and dotted with tiny droplets of morning dew. Now imagine that same butterfly, in all its beauty and fragility, expressed as jewellery, a spectacular creation consisting of Burmese rubies, white and yellow diamonds, sapphires, and more rubies. It is delicate, intricate, bold and precious. It is, down to the yellow diamonds that delineate the wings, and the white diamonds of different sizes and cuts signifying water droplets, nature transformed into art through the medium of gemstones.
This stunning piece is the Aurora Butterfly Brooch, the 2019 Black Label Masterpiece from Cindy Chao The Art Jewel that was presented to an awestruck audience at last year’s Masterpiece London Art Fair.
Chao, the founder and creative director of Cindy Chao The Art Jewel, has seen her designs inducted into the world’s most prestigious cultural institutions. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, for instance, has inducted in 2010 the 2009 Black Label Masterpiece I Royal Butterfly brooch. This year, the Musée des Arts D.coratifs in Paris added Chao’s 2008 Black Label Masterpiece I Ruby Butterfly brooch to its permanent collection.
Related: Cindy Chao The Art Jewel Reaches Another Milestone On Its 15th Anniversary
As a student in New York, Chao recalls that she would pass Rockefeller Center every day and look into the windows of Christie’s, the celebrated auction house. She would tell herself, “It is the biggest dream of my life, if someday one of my pieces could be auctioned at Christie’s.” International recognition first came a mere three years after she opened her private showroom and design studio in Taipei in 2004.
In 2007, she headed back to New York with five pieces in her luggage, including the Winter choker and bangle from the Four Seasons collection, and made an appointment with Rahul Kadakia, now international head of jewellery at Christie’s, to present them. “At the time, I was unknown to anyone at Christie’s, and no one had ever seen my creations,” she says.
Two pieces were accepted for auction. The Christie’s Magnificent Jewels Auction in December 2007 marked Chao’s debut on the world stage, and her creations swiftly gained worldwide attention as exquisitely handcrafted wearable pieces of art. In 2016, another dream became reality when she took part in the Paris Biennale des Antiquaires.
Two years later, she was the only Asian high jeweller to participate in Masterpiece London, a leading cross-collecting art fair, where her ruby-studded Peony brooch was singled out by the 150-member Masterpiece award committee as the recipient of the Outstanding Object Award, calling it “an outstanding example of contemporary craftsmanship and great design”. She has also been taking part in TEFAF Maastricht—a major fair for museum-quality art, antiques and design—since 2019.
Now, Chao, 45, is looking to the future. “My next goal is to build my brand into a hundred-year-old brand”, she declares, “an Asian lifestyle brand.”
See also: Living The Dream: Cindy Chao Gathers 12 High Society Figures To Present Her Latest Jewellery Masterpieces In Bangkok
