Qiaoyu Deng - UK/China
Qiaoyu Deng
Designer biography:
She is a contemporary jewellery designer whose practice centers on material-based storytelling. Growing up in a coastal city with frequent rain, her early sensory experiences—such as the sounds of rain, wind, and subtle environmental changes—became the foundation of her emotional perception, which later evolved into conceptual threads within her work. Rather than focusing on decoration, her practice explores relationships between people, objects, and time through materials and structure. Her work is concerned with transformation as an ongoing state rather than a fixed outcome. She often selects materials that carry traces of time—such as metal, fruit shells, paper, and fibers—and reconfigures them through processes of assembling, layering, and displacement. These materials, when placed in new structural contexts, generate new meanings. Her pieces frequently embody instability or incompleteness, using connections, entanglements, and fractures to reflect attachment, disruption, and continuity within relationships. In her series Bottle and Vine, she combines damaged containers with withered vines. The containers, eroded by time, appear fragile and incomplete, becoming traces of past existence. The vines no longer symbolize growth, but instead persist through entanglement and attachment in another form. Within this structure, decay does not signify an end, but rather a transformation that continues within relationships. Through the interplay of residue, transformation, and connection, the work points toward a state of ongoing existence. Her practice seeks to create tension between wearability and conceptual expression, positioning jewellery not only as an object but also as a medium to be read. She continues to explore the narrative potential of materials, translating personal experiences into open-ended forms that invite individual interpretation. For her, jewellery is not an act of decoration, but a way of thinking about existence and relationships.
Collection concept
This series explores how connection persists through transformation, using the imagery of withered vines and time-worn vessels. Shaped by time, the vessels appear fragile and incomplete, becoming traces of what once existed. The withered vines no longer signify growth, but transform into another mode of continuation. They no longer develop, yet continue to extend, entwine, and rely on the vessel for their existence. Within this structure, decay does not signify an end, but remains within relations in another form. Through the interplay of residue, transformation, and connection, the work points toward a condition of persistence.
