Consumers have higher requirements for the choice of jewelry, and the characteristics of artistry and personalized consumption are becoming more and more significant. Jewelry should not only bear the burden of matching decoration, but also express the aesthetic and lyricism of "people".
Affected by the epidemic, the dilemma has forced the industry to reflect and adjust, precipitate, re-examine the industry and itself, and think more deeply about jewelry design, and jewelry people are no exception. Designer Cai Anhe seems to be: "The material itself is a design language, different materials affect the visual and tactile effects of the modeling form, reflecting the personality quality of the design itself, while different materials also have their own different properties and formal beauty." ”
Cai Anhe accidentally came into contact with titanium and was attracted by its brilliant colors, and has been with titanium for 14 years. From exploring its color change laws, to the fusion with the jade, and then to the current titanium wire inlay, Cai Anhe has always insisted on being a good friend of titanium and being a craftsman.
Bonding with Titanium, a teacher-student interaction of joint learning
In 2008, when Cai Anhe explained the special colors of different materials in jewelry processing in class, a student immediately mentioned titanium. At this time, Cai An, who was not familiar with titanium metals, promised the students that "I will bring it to the next class." After the class, he immediately collected information about titanium and titanium jewelry at home and abroad, only to find that titanium can actually show such a rich color on jewelry works, and quickly made an attempt to use titanium to make works for class explanation within a week. It is precisely because of this interaction between teachers and students that Cai Anhe came into contact with and tried the creation of titanium, and had 14 years of uninterrupted exploration.
Indigo Butterfly
Compared with the single color of traditional jewelry materials, titanium metal is colored by applying the principle of oxidation, which can achieve a multi-color scale dazzling effect on the same work, which coincides with the natural series that Cai Anhe has been trying. So we can see his early titanium jewelry is brilliantly colored, the shape is rich in detail, and the works seem to be natural living creatures.
Mutant Dragonfly
"Bugs"
Taming each other, the craft must pursue the ultimate
Once the brilliant and colorful titanium jewelry was launched, it won the attention and love of consumers, but it can really tame it, and Cai Anhe does not use it overnight. On the one hand, titanium as a non-precious metal is widely used in various fields, but its processing technology requirements are very high, because its high strength, high melting point will not only lead to low ductility, but also lead to conventional equipment is difficult to cast into shape, so it is difficult for ordinary tools to weld titanium, which makes it difficult for titanium jewelry to form large-scale production, which can only be produced by handicraft.
"Ice Drop Titanium Flower Earrings"
"Spring Ring"
"New things attract attention, but they also create doubts. Titanium's dazzling color is unforgettable, but it is also difficult to tame. The time spent on the production process is rarely understood by many people, and in the end, it can only be silenced in the work. Cai Anhe said.
Flower Fairy
"Flowers blooming"
After gaining a lot of recognition for the fusion of color and material, Cai Anhe began to think about how to fuse titanium with other traditional materials, which triggered his new creative route. In 2019, Yunnan designer Duan Ruxue and Cai Anhe met by chance, and their love for nature made the two hit it off and began the graceful fusion of jadeite and titanium.
After three years, the two worked together to create a natural symbiosis series represented by "Butterfly Universe", which injected new vitality into titanium jewelry. The work uses a pupa-shaped jadeite as the center stone, with white diamonds, pink diamonds, and yellow diamonds, and uses the finest titanium wire that can reach 0.1mm to build four different butterfly wing structures, and you can feel the butterfly appearance of the wings at all angles. The whole work is 120mm wide, 98mm high, and uses a total of more than 3,000 gemstones, with a weight of only 49.3 grams, which is lifelike and light, which is the unique lightness of titanium jewelry, and it is also the polishing of Cai Anhe's three years little by little.
《Butterfly Universe》
"Sometimes making jewelry is not about talent and skill, it is about testing human patience. In the past, most of the basic skills that the master asked us to spend time to ponder were basic skills, but often the simplest process was the most difficult to do well, and it required you to pay several times more time and energy than others before you were willing to give back a little progress. So a lot of times, I think it's okay to take it slowly, slow, it may mean more intentional. Cai Anhe said.
The work uses the wire setting process in traditional metalworking to complete the fusion innovation of materials such as titanium and gemstones. The 0.3 mm diameter titanium wire is tightly wrapped around more than 1,000 gemstones, and the titanium and gemstones echo each other, and the almost transparent "Palm of the Sky" was born. Different inlay techniques are used at the blades and petioles to increase the comfort of wearing and enrich the work in detail.
Palm of the Sky
"Sometimes the focus of skill inheritance is not on the skill, but on the people. Only when more people understand and love the technology, can it continue to make progress and innovation in technology and technology, and can it catch up with the pace of the times. I am looking forward to the new media era to inject new vitality into titanium jewelry, handicrafts and even the jewelry industry, bringing more surprises of change. Cai Anhe said.