香港设计师把时尚融入玉饰设计

Beyond Green Jade

香港设计师把时尚融入玉饰设计

HONG KONG — It’s often called the stone of heaven and is believed to ward off evil.

香港——它经常被称为天国之石，人们相信它有辟邪的作用。

The Chinese have long been fascinated by jade — many people you pass on the street here, men and women alike, wear a bracelet or pendant — but soaring demand for the traditional deep-green color has designers increasingly turning to lavender, black, yellow and even colorless, or clear, jade.

中国人对玉石的迷恋由来已久，走过街头，可以看到许多男女戴着玉石手镯或吊坠——随着对传统翡翠玉石的需求飙升，如今设计师也越来越多地转向淡紫色、黑色、黄色甚至是无色透明的玉石饰品。

In prices, “there has been an upward growth these five to six years, mainly due to the economic strength of the mainland Chinese market,” said Chiang Shiu-fung, associate vice president of Christie’s Hong Kong and a jewelry specialist.

在价格方面，“最近五六年，主要是因为大陆市场的的经济实力在增强，玉石价格也持续走高，” 香港佳士得助理副总裁及珠宝专家蒋肇丰说。

Jewelry designers in Hong Kong have turned to other colors as traditional green jade becomes more expensive and hard to get. Michelle Ong, the owner and designer of the Hong Kong jewelry brand Carnet, said it took her several years to collect jade in the right size and form to create this necklace of gourd-shaped yellow jadeite and diamonds.

为了设计花朵形状的胸针和钻石项链，米歇尔·翁花费了几年时间收集形状大小合适的玉石。

A jade necklace that once belonged to the American heiress Barbara Hutton was sold last year by Sotheby’s Hong Kong for $27.44 million, a record auction price for jade jewelry. The piece, which had been estimated to sell for $12.8 million, featured round, perfectly matched green beads with a ruby and diamond clasp by Cartier, which made the winning bid.

去年香港苏富比以2744万美元的价格拍出了美国名媛芭芭拉·霍顿(Barbara Hutton)的一条翡翠项链，创下了玉石首饰的拍卖纪录。这件首饰预估价在1280万美元，翡翠圆珠完美地搭配着卡地亚镶配的红宝石镶钻链扣，最后亦被卡地亚拍下。

It is such prices that have been changing the jade market.

这样的高价持续在改变着玉石市场的状况。

“When someone is spending millions of dollars purchasing a jadeite piece of jewelry, they are only concerned about the quality of the jade and not so much the design,” said Eddy Hui, artistic director of Edward Chiu Jewellery Art, a boutique in Hong Kong’s Central district that specializes in contemporary jade pieces. “They tend to stick with very traditional and simple styles because the value of the stone prohibits them from being too fashion-forward.

“人们花费成千上百万美元购买硬玉首饰，他们介意的只是玉本身的质量，而非首饰的设计，”爱德华·邱珠宝艺术(Edward Chiu Jewellery Art)的艺术指导艾迪·许(Eddy Hui，音译)说，这是一家坐落在香港中环上的精品店，专营当代玉石首饰。“他们喜欢非常传统、非常简单的款式，因为硬玉价格太高，设计上不能过于追求时尚。”

“But we have been advocating other colors, which are more reasonably priced, and we can be more daring and creative, making jadeite jewels more relevant to the fashionable customer,” he said.

“但是我们正在以更为合理的价格推出其他颜色的玉石，这样就可以更大胆、更具创意，让硬玉首饰更加贴近时尚消费人群，”他说。

Price difference

价格差异

To illustrate, Mr. Hui held up two pairs of jadeite earrings of identical design, oval disks with a cut-out pattern. The white jade was listed at 110,000 Hong Kong dollars, or $14,193; the green was 250,000 dollars, more than double the price.

为了说明自己的观点，许先生拿出两对款式相同的硬玉耳环，它们都是剪纸风格的椭圆形，白色的一对价格是11万港元，约合14193美元;绿色的一对要卖25万港元，是白色耳环的一倍还多。

In the Chiu shop, where merchandise is displayed in gilded birdcages, Mr. Hui also showed a flower bracelet, part of the company’s Lady Lavender collection. A combination of petals in lavender jade accented with black jade, ruby spinels and diamonds mounted in 18-karat white gold, it sells for 2.3 million dollars.

在爱德华·邱店内，商品都被陈列在镀金的鸟笼里，许先生向我们出示了一款雕花手镯，它属于公司的“薰衣草女郎”(Lady Lavender)系列。手镯上有淡紫色玉石的花瓣，配合着黑色玉石以及镶嵌在18K白金上的红晶石和钻石，手镯售价230万港元。

Mr. Hui said he would not make such a daring design in green jade, as a top-quality stone in that color could be put to more profitable use. “A jeweler will probably harvest the stone and make several pairs of earrings or pendants that will give a better yield,” he said.

许先生说，他不会在绿色翡翠玉石上采用这样大胆的设计，顶尖质量的绿翡翠要用在更加有利可图的地方。“一件首饰可能主要使用一块石头开出的玉石做成，边角料还可以做几对耳环或几个吊坠，这样就可以物尽其用，”他说。

Jade actually is a general term for two substances, nephrite and jadeite. Nephrite, which is durable and looks opaque (the Chinese call it “mutton fat”), has been used since prehistoric times to create objects from utensils to weapons. Jadeite, the more valuable stone, with a quartz-like or translucent appearance, is more commonly used for jewelry and was prized by Chinese emperors during the Qing dynasty (mid-1600s to 1912). Its growing popularity has even some Western jewelry designers, such as David Webb in New York and the Paris house JAR, featuring jade in their designs.

“玉石”其实是软玉和硬玉这两种质材的统称。软玉更耐久，是不透明的，中文称之为“羊脂”，从史前时代就用来制作各种物品，从厨具到武器应有尽有。硬玉翡翠更加昂贵，呈石英状或半透明状，主要用于制作首饰，深受清王朝(17世纪中期到1912年)的各位帝王喜爱。它目前也愈来愈受到西方珠宝设计师的青睐，纽约的大卫·韦伯(David Webb)和巴黎品牌JAR都在设计中使用了玉石。

Today, most jadeite comes from Myanmar. But “top-quality Burmese jadeite is becoming rare to find,” another factor driving up prices, said Mr. Chiang of Christie’s.

如今，大多数硬玉产自缅甸。但是“顶尖的缅甸硬玉愈来愈难以寻觅”，佳士得的蒋先生说，这也是价格上涨的另一个原因。

Christie’s Hong Kong, which has opened a sales department for clients who do not want to wait for its twice-yearly auctions, stocks jewelry in clear and lavender jade in addition to green. Mr. Chiang displayed one of its pieces, a ring with a cabochon-style piece of colorless jadeite.

香港佳士得为不愿等待一年两次拍卖会的客户开设了一个销售部门，除了翡翠玉之外，还出售透明和淡紫色的玉石首饰。蒋先生展示了其中一件物品：用透明硬玉制成的凸面宝石风格戒指。

“White jadeite has always been loved by the Chinese. They carve religious figures like the deity Guanyin with more opaque white because the color stands for purity,” he said, referring to the Buddhist goddess of mercy. And “for more fashionable designs, a clear jadeite ring looks very contemporary.”

“中国人一直都很喜欢白色硬玉。他们用更具不透明感的白玉来雕刻观音等佛像，因为白色象征着纯洁，”——在佛教中，观音是慈悲的象征。此外，“在更为时尚的设计中，清澈透明的硬玉戒指非常有当代感。”

The Chiu boutique also has pieces in yellow and red jade, which Mr. Hui said are favored by European customers. “Yellow complements the fair skin tone of Caucasian clients,” he noted.

爱德华·邱店内也出售黄玉和红玉首饰，许先生说，欧洲顾客对这两样质材格外青睐。“黄色能衬托高加索人白皙的皮肤，”他说。

While Chiu Jewellery Art focuses on dramatic, high-fashion styles, Kai-yin Lo, a self-taught designer in Hong Kong who began working with jade in the 1970s, has a more subtle aesthetic — although it also relies on various colors of jade.

“爱德华·邱珠宝艺术”喜爱引人注目，高端时尚的风格;然而自学成才、自20世纪70年代便开始设计玉石首饰的香港设计师罗启妍则青睐更加微妙的美学，她喜欢充分利用玉石的不同颜色。

“I have been using red, lavender, white and yellow jadeite in my design because classic green is too traditional,” she said.

“我用过红色、淡紫色、白色和黄色硬玉，因为经典的翡翠绿过于传统了，”她说。

Using a combination of nephrite sourced in China by antique dealers and jadeite from Hong Kong wholesalers, Ms. Lo connects jade pieces with silk cords, sometimes adding small whimsical details such as a coral ring or a horn fastener to an otherwise elegant assemblage.

罗启妍使用从中国大陆古董商处买来的软玉和香港经销商处买来的硬玉，用丝绳把玉片串起来，有时还加上一些聪明的小细节，比如一只珊瑚指环或角质物品，最终成为一件优雅的组合。

The stone

石材

The design of jade jewelry also is influenced by the shape, texture and characteristic of the stone.

玉石首饰设计要受玉石本身形状、质材和特点的影响。

Mr. Hui noted: “It’s not like diamond jewelry where you can create a design and source various shapes and sizes of diamonds. Jadeite is always the origin of the design itself.”

许先生说：“设计钻石珠宝的时候，同样的设计可以用在不同形状、不同大小的钻石上面。硬玉首饰通常要根据玉石本身量身定制。”

A nephew of Mr. Chiu, who died two years ago, Mr. Hui comes from a family of jadeite specialists who travel to Myanmar regularly to obtain stones. “Because we are experts, we already have our idea of what we want to make and what the quality of the jadeite before we even harvest it from the boulder,” he said.

许先生是邱先生的外甥，邱先生于两年前去世，家族中都是玉石专家，经常到缅甸去购买玉石。“因为我们都是行家，所以玉石刚一从石头里开采出来，我们就能判断它的质量如何，知道该用它来制做什么。”

And sometimes a designer has to be patient.

有时候设计师必须非常耐心。

Michelle Ong, the owner and designer of the Hong Kong jewelry brand Carnet, said it took her several years to collect jade in the right size and shape for a floral-design brooch and a necklace of diamonds and gourd-shaped yellow jadeite.

香港珠宝品牌Carnet的所有者兼设计师米歇尔·翁(Michelle Ong)说，为了设计一枚花朵形状的胸针，以及一条缀着葫芦形状黄色硬玉的钻石项链，她花费几年时间收集形状大小合适的玉石。

“Jadeite is always going to be the chosen gemstone for Asians because of our heritage,” she said. “And the fact that we need to take our time and find the right stone first — you can’t rush it.”

“因为文化传承的缘故，硬玉一直都是亚洲人最爱的珠宝，”她说，“首先，我们必需花费时间，精心选择合适的玉石——这是急不得的。”