Jingya Yang was born into a family of jade carvers, where generations have worked closely with the stone. Growing up surrounded by traditional jade craftsmanship, she was immersed in a world defined by heritage and convention. Yet, the contrast between this background and the contemporary design education she later received led her to initially distance herself from traditional jade aesthetics.

Over time, Jingya rediscovered her connection to the material. While studying Contemporary Jewellery in the UK, she began to re-examine jade through a modern lens—translating its warmth and spirit into a contemporary design language. Her practice seeks to preserve cultural continuity while redefining the identity of jade in today’s context.

Jingya Yang is a China-born jewellery designer currently based in the UK. Her work bridges traditional culture and contemporary design, seeking new ways to reinterpret nephrite within a modern aesthetic context.

To her, nephrite is a material with an inherent sense of character—modest, composed, and self-contained. Its fine, smooth texture lends it a quiet elegance, while its softness conceals inner strength, echoing the Eastern aesthetic philosophy of finding power in softness and stillness.

Yang’s design philosophy emphasises subtlety, restraint, and emotional depth. Centring her creative process on the material itself, she explores the potential and beauty hidden within irregular and imperfect fragments, transforming them into new design languages. By respecting the natural form and texture of the material, she presents a contemporary expression of nephrite that is understated, refined, and quietly powerful.