Mia Kwon

June 17, 2021

Mia Kwon is one of the 8 artists featured in our show 'Form & Function' from May 8th - August 7th, 2021. The artists in this show blur the lines between sculptural and wearable, and are experimental in the forms they incorporate into their pieces. Shop the entire exhibition HERE

Q: Where did you study Jewelry/Metalsmithing and where?

A: Studied Ceramic Craft in Korea (Bachelor), Design in Germany (Masters) and self taught myself metal smith skills through corses and practice over the years

Q: What inspires your work?

A: I wanted to create beautiful jewelry out of porcelain. Creating objects that are great to wear and create a fresh perspective on porcelain jewelry.

Q: Do you have a favorite piece you've made?

A: Necklace 'Beauty in the Struggle'

Q: What made you want to start making jewelry?

A: I wanted to bring the elegance and delicate feel of well crafted porcelain closer to people, it was sort of a natural step for me to combined my passion for fashion, craft and porcelain to achieve this.

Q: What is your favorite process? Why that one over others?

A: One important element of my work is to make my porcelain jewellery comfortably wearable, while still keeping the unique and precious feel of hand crafted porcelain. I developed and combined my own set of processes to achieve this. For my slip cast porcelain elements, I use Mont-Blanc porcelain, because of its fine texture and colour and also its strength. I polish the finished pieces to reach a super slick surface, which is nice to watch and wear. My favourite part of the process is the initial ideation process to think about a new work. During the production process I enjoy the part where I combine colours and shapes of the smaller elements into a larger work.

Q: Who is your favorite artist/who do you wear?

A: Manon van Kouswijk, PE/AH (I like these very much as jewelry artists, I don't own pieces done by them)

Q: Is there an artist on your personal wishlist that you hope to own one day?

A: Christian Metzner, bubun works

Q: What is something you would want someone to know about your work that they might not know?

A: The most important part for me is to showcase that porcelain can be designful, delicate and comfortably wearable. I want people to wear it and change their perception of what porcelain jewelry can be.

Q: When you're not making jewelry, what are you doing?

A: Food is very important to me, so I enjoy cooking and eating delicious food with the people that are most important to me.

Q: What attracted you to this material versus more traditional jewelry making practices such as metal and stones?

My origin was ceramic and porcelain. When I became interested in jewelry it was natural to me to utilize my ceramics skills. I like the beauty and preciousness of porcelain and I enjoy the process of working with it. Another aspect was that I wanted to change the perception of people on porcelain jewelry and show that porcelain can be light, comfortable and designful.

Q: Do you feel that you visualize an object and then transform it into a wearable piece, or does the concept materialize as a smaller form and then grow from there?

I developed my process and techniques over many years. Now I usually have a picture in my head and then start to build the piece, combining colors and shapes.

Q: What is the importance/significance of the connection between sculptural and wearable to you?

For me it is important to produce designful and wearable pieces. This is also part of my aim to show people that porcelain jewelry can be easy to wear and does not need to be heavy clumsy pieces.

Q: When looking at other artists, do you find yourself drawn more towards metalsmiths and jewelry makers or sculptors and object makers?

I enjoy jewelry artists that produce very designful and well crafted pieces.

Q: What is the relationship between form and function for you and your work? Is one more important than the other?

Both are important to me. All pieces I produce need to have both for me to be happy with them.