Jiayi Zhang

Drinking tea is an integral part of my daily life, and my love for tea was nurtured by my father from a young age. While thinking about the culture of tea, I also reflected on my own identity with tea . As a jewellery  designer, is it possible for me to convey my love of tea and respect for its traditional culture through jewellery? So my final collection consists of Jewellery made from the fresh tea .

When I wear it, tea has a kind of meaning for me . It’s culture has a long history of culture, and there are many different ways from picking and making it to drinking it after we get it.  Through the deep understanding of tea culture, I humanities tea cake is a very interesting point, due to the ancient transport, tea will be squeezed into a  cake form for trade, nowadays this form has also been passed down, the tea cake does not use to water, through the traditional skills through some steps to tightly press it together to set the shape, this is a very interesting  process, I went through the production of tea cake to understand the culture . 

During the development process I thought the best way to express was the tea itself, so I tried to use consumed tea and tea dregs as the main materials . I tried  to make their forms through traditional techniques as well as some experimentation . During the development  process, I considered not only the form of the tea cake but also the form of the tea leaves, combining them to reflect the process of tea culture and create a unique visual experience, and I used handmade methods to reflect my feelings about tea .

In order to ensure that the material performs as expected, and whether it will come loose with subsequent wear,  I have conducted many experiments and tests, focusing on the stability and durability of tea as a jewellery form. Through my experiments I discovered that tea is a material with many possibilities, and that it can take  on different forms as well as hardness through different methods of making. The mechanism of tea leaves leaves shape after being squeezed. Different kinds of tea leaves have different colours after being made into tea  cakes. I think that tea cakes can be made in different sizes to provide different people with choices .

Throughout the process, I focus on finding the right way to experience the visual experience in order to show the profound meaning of tea culture . I have incorporated my understanding of tea culture into my work. As well as the interactivity with tea is expressed in the jewellery, we can remove a piece at any time to allow ourselves  to enjoy a cup of hot tea . Through the unique material and cultural element of tea, I present a novel and meaningful jewellery.