Chua Gek Noi
jewellery designer
Loang and Noi

JEWELLERY designer Chua Gek Noi - the fairer half of the husband and wife team that runs premium baubles brand Loang and Noi - has no reservations sharing her most intimate family moments with her sizable clientele.

For the 15th anniversary of their jewellery house, Loang and Noi distributed about 1,000 copies of a book filled with striking photographs of holidays, significant events and personal moments.

Interspaced with the photographs - which also include a fair bit of nature photography, thanks to the family's extensive travel - are close-up images of the distinctive pieces of jewellery that have made the local brand one of the most lauded among high society.

'Some of the pictures are very old. But we thought, 15 years, that's really something! We wanted to do something meaningful, so I took out all my old photographs. It's my hobby; most of my jewellery pieces I photograph myself,' says Ms Chua, who found a lifelong passion in photography while studying a graphic design course.

However, she is the first to admit that she has no aspirations to go pro: 'I have achieved what I have wanted to in terms of photography; I don't have the ambition to become a professional. I am happy and contented being a jewellery designer.'

The trigger-happy Ms Chua is known to whip out her trusty Leica ( 'when my husband gave it to me for my birthday, it was a dream come true!' she says gleefully) anytime something 'strikes or inspires her', which usually takes the form of two passions: her work or her family.

'It's my nature, I like it because it is wonderful that you can capture a moment in time,' she says. 'You used to have painting and drawing, but now you have wonderful equipment that can really capture your memories.'

For Ms Chua, her photography is an extension of the visual acuity required for her work - it helps her exercise her eye for symmetry, form and colour.

This is shown in the commemorative book: each piece of jewellery has a corresponding picture that it shares a relationship with. Some of the baubles are 'direct translations' of the photographs, while others are meant to evoke similar emotions to Ms Chua's 'captured memories.'

For example, a necklace with an intricate elephant pendant is paired with an image of her young son holding his little sister in his arms.

'It was a very nice moment, before he got tired,' she says. 'Both the photograph and the necklace were created at the same time, and they both have that innocent, nostalgic feel.' Other pairings are just as personal: one particularly endearing image contains her two daughters, wearing sunglasses and smiling widely at the camera.

'This ring is called whale, because my younger daughter's nickname is whale,' she says about one of the most popular pieces in her collection, a chunky ring bearing a shape that resembles the sea creature it is named after. 'We were on holiday on the Gold Coast in Australia and I'd just fed the kids dinner and I told them not to move,' she recounts fondly.

Some of the more literal pairings have her jewellery mimicking the form and structure of the photographs: a fence in a field blanketed with snow becomes a necklace with diamond studded, structural links that resemble the enclosure; two rounded, vintage street lamps are shown next to earrings seemingly swollen with precious gems.

The photographs inform her jewellery design and vice versa; she recognises that both endeavours require the same visual skill sets of balancing form and colour.

'I want to create things that are comfortable to the eye,' she says. 'Because I think nature and my family are so beautiful, I can transform them into very beautiful pieces of jewellery.'

This article was first published in The Business Times