Yasmine White: A designer showcasing Oriental jewelry
Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Su in Korean means drops of water. The little stream of river that makes its way to the sea. Not as tremendous and powerful as the ocean, but meaningful.
And so Korean jewelry designer Yasmine White named her collection Su.
Maybe it also has something to do with her free-flowing attitude, just like water.
"I'm not really commercial. I am just doing something that I like. And if people like it, that's double happiness for me," she said while exhibiting her collection at Hotel Grand Mahakam in South Jakarta, on Tuesday.
However, when asked further questions about herself, White declined to answer.
"Please, don't ask about me, just about my jewelry."
Based here for the past four years, White started the business only nine months ago designing and making the jewelry by hand.
"In the beginning, I just played with it. But then I started to get serious," said White who spends from two hours to two days to finish one piece.
Her collection is oriental in style with oriental stones including jade, coral, topaz and tumaline.
"Basically, I mix precious stones with semiprecious stones. As you can see, I combine them with gold, ivory, diamond, pearl and silver," she explained.
Most of her collection are necklaces with beautiful stones and gems woven together, resulting in a colorful and pretty necklace.
Spherical shiny red stones, for example, are combined with a gold pendant in the form of a goldfish.
Aside from necklaces, White also makes brooches and bracelets.
The style is classic-oriental, yet trendy, with the addition of onyx, for example, and the spiral-like bracelet.
White obtains the gemstones from Hong Kong and Thailand, whereas the pearl she obtains locally.
"This turquoise was bought from Tibet, so was the tumaline. It's not that Indonesian stones are not beautiful. Local stones are very beautiful and diverse but it is hard to find anyone who can form and polish them well," White said.
With prices ranging from over Rp 1 million (US$111) for each piece -- up to Rp 6.9 million and more -- White's collection has begun to gain popularity.
Exhibition organizer Anna Kwan said that wealthy ladies have been craving to buy a piece from White's collection from the first day of the exhibition on Tuesday afternoon. Around 50 percent of the pieces on exhibit were sold.
White said compared to Koreans, Indonesians were more open to new things.
"People here have a lot of interest in jade, although it can't be said that jade is the most popular. I can understand because jade is such a mystical, historical and very oriental stone. Indonesians have come to fully appreciate oriental jewelry after the government lifted the ban on the public display of Chinese culture," said White, referring to the government regulation in 1999 that permitted Chinese-Indonesians to practice their culture openly.
If you are interested in making a purchase, Yasmine White can be contacted at: Ground floor, Menara SDA, Jl. Guntur No. 44, Central Jakarta, Tel. 830-7122.