CHENYANG ZHAO, China/UK
A Pearl is a scar that chose to heal
A pearl is not a gift from nature, but the crystallization of a wound. Beauty is born from irritation and rejection – a response to an intruder.
Inspired by this, I embed marks and cuts into the skin, transforming them into structure – transforming the body into a vessel for emotional expression and healing.
This work continues my exploration of healing jewelry through skin textures, embedded forms and symbolic scars. It reflects how pain, when embraced, becomes beauty – and how jewelry can act as a second skin, carrying memory and resilience.
Material: pearls, silicone
Technique: handmaking, layering
Chenyang Zhao is a Chinese contemporary jewellery artist currently based in London. She is completing her MA at the Royal College of Art, after completing her BA in Jewelry and Objects at Birmingham City University.
Her practice is based on material exploration and focuses on how unconventional materials such as incense ash, silicone and mixed media can be transformed into wearable forms. Through her creative process, she explores how value, meaning and identity are shaped through material processes, cultural context, and bodily experience.
Her recent works explore the relationship between the body, surface and emotional memory, often expressed through skin-like structures and tactile forms. Her series A Pearl Is a Scar That Chose to Heal examines transformation through accumulation, using the pearl as a metaphor for vulnerability, endurance and internal change.
She works with jewelry, objects and experimentation with material; therefore, her practice is positioned between craft, contemporary jewelry and conceptual design. Her works have been presented in academic and independent exhibitions, and she continues to develop research practice which connects bodily experience with symbolic meaning.
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