MIN-JI CHO

Red Rubber Gloves and Freshwater Pearls
Brooch Pin

A baseball stadium, amusement park and zoo are a few attractions to partake of in the South Korean city Masan.

Known for its textile industry, the city also offers hiking trails at Dotseom Island, tasty delicacies and an energetic nightlife.

Korea is also home to featured jewelry designer Min-Ji Cho.

Rubber cleaning gloves and freshwater pearls is not a strange combination in the context of someone cleaning her cherished pearl jewelry.

On the other hand this combination seems very strange as components of a piece of jewelry. 

To a contemporary art jeweler, however, showcasing odd materials in beautiful, askew or lyrical arrangements is commonplace.

For Cho rubber gloves and freshwater pearls prominently compose her offbeat and remarkable necklaces, brooch pins and dangle earrings. 

Items are alternately voluminous or tightly coiled with vibrant pinks, blues and oranges, and understated blacks and off-whites.  Her funky and abstract recycled polypystrene pieces–that are reminiscent of iced pastries--are child-like in their whimsical patterns.

 By choosing to align non-precious with precious materials she pushes the observer to shift his or her ideas about value in jewelry, as well as open up new ideas about jewelry’s function.

Sterling Silver and Silicon Earrings

 “My creative process is investigative, says the 32-year-old graduate of London’s Royal College of Art and Seoul’s Hongkik University.  “I investigate the decorative character of a piece of jewelry, and notions of preciousness. 

My focus is on extending the potential of jewelry in terms of its function and aesthetic.  I am as interested in the use of jewelry on the body as well as off the body.

I believe jewelry should be enjoyed when it is off the body and that is not possible if it is kept in a jewelry box. In addition, by combining different materials I explore the extremes of precious and non-precious.”

Sterling Silver Pink Rubber Gloves Necklace
with Freshwater Pearls

2014 Jewelry Trend Alert:  Cho’s unforgettable creations highlight some of the year’s color trends including pink and blue; and her offbeat style caps it off.