The Hong Kong-born, London-based jewellery designer is a disruptor in the industry, blending fine jewellery craftsmanship with innovative materials and sustainable practices. She originally trained to be an architect before switching to the more tactile and timeless craft of jewellery design
Anabela Chan Joaillerie Fruit Gems™ Emerald Nectar Bracelet, Sapphire Plankton Elixir Ring
What attracted you to jewellery design? Why did you change lanes from architecture?
Architecture and jewellery share many parallels – from design proportions to geometries, colour palettes to textures and an understanding of materials and constructions. In my design philosophy, they are both an intersection where science meets art. As an architect and fashion print and embroidery designer, I was always designing and drawing on paper or digitally on the computer, and I really missed a sense of tangible craftsmanship. I also found the fast pace of luxury fashion seasons exhausting, with excessive wastage as a result. Jewellery to me is the ultimate treasure: a little work of art hand-crafted with exceptional craftsmanship from wondrous materials. I love jewellery’s longevity to transcend generations – it is seasonless, timeless and ageless. For something so small, it can hold a world of memories and emotions. It gives you the chance to hold on to the past as well as reach out to the future and I find that endearingly romantic. I think my architectural training has influenced my attention to and obsession with details; I think the sensibility of scale, proportion, geometry, materiality and storytelling are all very similar traits shared between architects and jewellers. Visual imagery is very important in my work as a medium for storytelling, as I find the sensuality of what you see and feel very powerful and moving.
AC Fruit Gems
Is sustainability something that has always been important to you?
From day one it has always been our mission to be the most sustainable fine jewellery brand. We are the first fine jewellery brand in the world to champion laboratory-grown gemstones and recycled metals with high-jewellery design and artisanal craftsmanship, always with a focus on ethical and circular innovations. I believe it is important to learn from the past to offer a different perspective in the present, always in mind for a better future. Not many people know that commercial industrial mining is one of the most destructive industries on the planet. To mine a one-carat diamond, 1,100 tonnes of earth have to be removed from the ground. If we can move away from destruction to conservation through science and artistic creation, I think that is a wonderful thing.
Anabela Chan by Albert Vincent Wu
How did you discover the Fruit Gems™ gemstone technique and what is the process?
Fruit Gems™ are handcrafted in our atelier following over three years of research; they are radiant creations drawn from the world’s most vivid botanicals. Learning from ancient foraging and pigmentation techniques, we harness pigments gently extracted from beetroots, spinach, blueberries, dragon fruit, spirulina and more. They are bonded and stabilised with a bio-resin foundation derived from plants and renewable organic materials such as corn, soybean, agave and avocado seeds. Each gemstone is a celebration of colour and nature – alive with the essence of the Earth and completed with artisanal precision. The rough Fruit Gems™ can be cut, faceted and polished the same way as natural gemstones, with the ability to be cast into forms like molten metals. Every step was a challenge, it took painstaking, meticulous repetitions of trial and error for each type of fruit and vegetable, which all behave and react differently. We tested over 30 types and launched the collection with eight of our best results. Learning from Fruit Gems™, we have also recently introduced our Regenerative-Gemstones™ – a pioneering blend of sustainability and luxury. Among these we have a reimagined amber, infused with the golden hues of autumn leaves and twigs, alongside ethically recreated rose quartz, amethyst, malachite and lapis lazuli – each regenerated from lapidary offcuts to give forgotten fragments a dazzling second life.
How do you think sustainability fits into the world of luxury – do you think it is something that the modern consumer is a lot more conscious of?
Our clients are global and we have seen a significant shift in their knowledge, awareness and interest in sustainability, ethical practice and environmental impact of their purchases, especially in the luxury sector. We have also seen a wider shift in both acceptance and appreciation of alternative materials such as laboratory-grown gemstones and recycled precious metals in fine jewellery, that extend beyond the younger demographic to more experienced clients, too. Their interests are no longer purely aesthetically driven, but value driven too
AC Fruit Gems
You were born in Hong Kong and lived in Paris before settling in London. How have these places influenced you?
It is such a privilege to grow up in three of the most beautiful and vibrant cities in the world. I’ve always noticed the beauty in details and nuances, embracing the experience and intersection where east meets west. I was born in Hong Kong where I lived until the age of 10, before my family moved to Paris and my sister and I attended boarding school in England. We lived in Saint-Germain on the Left Bank just opposite Pont Neuf, a short stroll from the Louvre. I remember spending weekends and half-terms in Paris where we would stroll across Place Vendôme and I would be completely mesmerised by the magnificent jewels in the shop windows, and yet my older sister (who is an engineer) would be the complete opposite, impatient and not interested at all! When I was 16, I was fortunate to meet and interview the late Andrew Grima at Burlington Arcade for a school art project. He showed me his incredibly unique jewels and objets d’art, and I ended up showing him my own sketches. I had the idea to cast the finest French lace in platinum, and he was kind enough to ask his workshop to experiment for me. This was my first encounter with fine jewellery craftsmanship, and I have been mesmerised ever since.
What inspires your designs?
I’m most inspired by nature, from flora and fauna to birds, seashells and underwater coral reefs. I think the most beautiful colours, textures, geometries and forms exist in nature and I try to capture a singular moment of magic in my jewellery creations. I love to work by hand, from sketching to painting the designs, then carving each creation in wax like a miniature sculpture before casting in precious metals and setting with coloured gemstones. Our creations are about pairing the most innovative material science with the most traditional artisan craftsmanship in fine jewellery, that are both joyful and extraordinary.
AC Fruit Gems
Whose personal style do you admire and why?
Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli – both extravagantly elegant, creatively confident and unapologetically unconventional.
What pieces from the world of Anabela Chan are you most proud of?
Fruit Gems™ and Blooms! are two collections I’m most proud of, as they are both the first of their kind in the world of fine jewellery and have been created through our own material science research and innovation, to challenge the very concept of what is precious.
How do you discover ethical new techniques and materials to work with in jewellery design?
What we represent in the fine jewellery world is the future – a brand where science innovation merges with artistic creations, true sustainability with ethical practice; how to work with nature to better it rather than deplete it. It is a celebration of traditional, artisan craftsmanship with modern technology and material science. As a jewellery designer, I choose to focus my work with laboratory-grown, created and recycled gemstones and materials. It has been my mission since day one to offer a different perspective in the industry – to create equally beautiful and one-of-a-kind jewels without the conflict, humanitarian and environmental issues with untraceable provenance associated with mining. Intentions play a pivotal role, guiding every decision I make – from discovering new ways to create gemstones to exploring innovative metals. The magic of turning “waste to wonder” questions the very idea of luxury – to be surprised by the alchemy where science meets art.
