Jewellery Artist Lu Ying Speaks at London Contemporary Practice Forum

2026-03-07 Editor

London, England, March 7, 2026 — Steven Zhao, Canada & World Report —Jewellery artist and designer Lu Ying spoke at the academic forum “Contemporary Practice I: Emerging Practices in Contemporary Art and Jewellery,” held on February 28, 2026, at Elvin Hall, UCL Institute of Education, London. In an interview with Canada & World Report on March 7, 2026, Lu reflected on her participation in the forum and discussed the importance of international dialogue in contemporary jewellery practice.

The forum brought together artists, scholars, and curators to explore how emerging practitioners generate meaning through material, the body, and cultural context within contemporary art and jewellery.

Image caption:
Elvin Hall at the UCL Institute of Education in London, venue of the academic forum “Contemporary Practice I: Emerging Practices in Contemporary Art and Jewellery.”

Organised by the Asian Academy of Arts, the forum examined how contemporary creators engage with materials and cultural narratives within a global artistic landscape.

Among the invited speakers was jewellery artist and designer Lu Ying, who delivered a presentation titled “Jewellery Practice Today: Material, Body, and Cultural Context.”

Image caption:
Jewellery artist and designer Lu Ying, speaker at the forum “Contemporary Practice I: Emerging Practices in Contemporary Art and Jewellery.”

Lu Ying: Jewellery Practice Today — Material, Body, and Cultural Context

Lu Ying is a jewellery artist and designer and the founder of Oriental Naturalism Jewellery and Baoji Jewellery. She advocates the concept of “designing for the future” and has developed the aesthetic framework of “Nouveau Deco.”

Through her research into a 1,668°C titanium forging technique, Lu integrates traditions of French craftsmanship with Eastern aesthetic structures, opening a new experimental direction for contemporary jewellery practice.

During the forum, Lu emphasised that jewellery should not be understood merely as decoration or craft but as a situated artistic practice closely connected to the human body.

Because of its intimate relationship with the body, jewellery can function as a “close-range cultural language,” generating meaning continuously through everyday experience. In her work, materials such as titanium, moonstone, and historical decorative traditions carry with them histories of technology, cultural memory, and aesthetic philosophy.

The high-temperature forging technique she developed not only advances craftsmanship but also serves as a method for exploring wearing experience, temporality, and cross-cultural translation.

Lu further argued that the meaning of jewellery does not depend on complete understanding or perfect cultural translation. Instead, bodily experience, the act of wearing, and perceptual participation are central to the generation of meaning.

In her view, contemporary jewellery represents a form of “slow practice.” In an era increasingly shaped by digitalisation and automation, handmaking is not simply a technical choice but an affirmation of attention, responsibility, and deep engagement with the material world.

During the roundtable discussion, Lu expanded on the theme of “material and authorship.” She suggested that the physical properties of materials and their contact with the body together construct an experiential dimension.

Speaking with reporters today, Lu said the forum demonstrated the importance of international dialogue in contemporary jewellery practice.

“Jewellery connects material, body, and culture in a very direct way,” she said. “When artists from different backgrounds come together, new ways of thinking about craft and contemporary life naturally emerge.”

Lu’s presentation offered a compelling perspective on the contemporary significance of jewellery while providing insights into emerging cross-cultural artistic methodologies.

The forum also featured contributions and dialogue from scholars and curators including Helen Frosi and Veronique Sanyu Chen.

Image caption:
Jewellery artist Lu Ying, scholar Helen Frosi, and curator Veronique Sanyu Chen participate in the roundtable discussion during the forum “Contemporary Practice I: Emerging Practices in Contemporary Art and Jewellery.”

The event opened with remarks by Xiaoming Zhu, Lecturer at the UCL Institute of Education and Deputy Director of the IOE Confucius Institute, and attracted participants from the fields of art, curating, and academic research.