JNA Mar 2020

DESIGN 46 | JNA Mar/Apr 2020 | Katie Wong 王嘉欣 | 夢幻童話珠寶 Jewellery of fairy tales A nyone is bound to be captivated by the abundantly colourful creations of Korean designer Kim Young Hee. In an interview, Kim said coloured gemstones paired with gold and silver are used without limits in her designs to reflect people’s various stories. “My mission is to make jewellery that helps the wearer find her individuality and true beauty,” she noted. Tourmalines and opals, among others, are prevalent in Kim’s collections under the Curly Cat brand, which she established in 2001. These two gemstones also played a key role in her lifelong love affair with stories and eventual career as a jewellery designer. Kim recalled fairy tale-like imaginings from her childhood: One sunny afternoon, a lonely little girl is dazzled by the gemstones on a brooch that she had secretly hidden from her mother. She then finds herself trapped by whirling lights that transport her into a secret world inside the gems. The gems on her mother’s brooch were tourmalines and opals. “I would travel to that alternate world every day. After many years, the stories unfolding from within the gems along with the characters from my imagination have evolved and become more diverse,” noted Kim. Many characters make up Kim’s “jewellery world.” There’s a fairy who makes a pair of shoes for his beloved princess using his own pair of wings; a deaf father who memorises rhythms from songs by heart so he could dance with his daughter; the Snow Queen who regained South Korean designer Kim Young Hee’s creations form her fascinating world of jewellery made of gemstones, stories and poems. “有沒有比珠寶更美麗的東西作為裝載靈魂的器皿?”金煐希以色彩斑斕的天 然彩寶打造夢幻的童話珠寶世界。 Jewellery pieces from the Water Lilies opal collection and a frog-inspired silver ring