Your Guide to Gems and Baubles at Beijing Design Week

You can't have Beijing Design Week without fashion and you can't have fashion without accessories, namely jewelry. Most notably, big-deal Austrian luxury crystal producer, Swarovski, is in town with its Digital Crystal exhibition. This elaborate reinterpretation of those light-catching gems you'd normally see on a chandelier or your ring finger premiered in London in 2012, but has been adapted to feature the recent works of several Chinese artists.

The designers were asked to use "crystals" to represent what memory would look like in the future. To give you an idea of what this means, here's a video from designer, architect and Digital Crystal collaborator, Ron Arad:

Catch it until Thursday, October 3 from 10am-6pm in 751 D-Park. For jewelry that you can wear, check out one of these exhibitions below.

Beijing International Jewelry Exhibition

Described as one of BJDW's highlights, this display at the Beijing World Art Museum covers all things jewelry, including cultural differences in wear and design, the expanding popularity of contemporary jewelry in China, and pieces from both domestic and international artists, including students from Chinese universities.

Wear Art Now

The Sinowing Art Gallery has around 200 pieces of avant garde jewelry on display that not only reflect Israelite culture, but have incorporated innovative techniques and technology in their making.

10am-5pm. Sinowing Art Gallery. R2806-2807 Hujialou Jing Guang Center, Chaoyang District

Picchiotti Jewelery Exhibition

Browse a collection of elegant pieces from Italian jeweler, Giuseppe Picchiotti.

Jinbao Place. 88 Jinbao Jie Dongcheng District

The Jewel of Dashilar

A teahouse-turned-gallery, Ubi, features works from local and international contemporary jewelry artists. Alongside each collection is a personal story from the artist about their inspiration, helping to better connect you to wearable pieces that may initially seem meaningless.

Ubi Gallery debuted last year, but this time they're bringing in necklaces made from recycled materials found around the Dashilar area to relay the idea that "jewelry is not only about the preciousness of materials, but more about concept, interesting design and the revaluation of existing resources."

Ubi Gallery. No.8 Dawailangying Hutong, Xicheng District

Crystal Embroidery

Swarovski makes another appearance in this contemporary interpretation of a more than 2,000-year-old Miao minority tradition. Browse a collection of embroidered jewelry that incorporates crystals and geometric designs by artist Naihain Li.

Red Yard, A1, Caochangdi

IXISM Design Exhibition

Stop by Nali Patio's fifth floor for an exhibition of 3D print jewelry and other products by IXISM. The two-year-old company also does light fixtures and housewares, gaining inspiration from anything from nature to the "abstraction of cultural motifs."

5/F, Nali Patio, 81 Sanlitun Road, Chaoyang District

Photo: designscene.net