XIAO’S JEWELRY by COCO

Independent Jewelry Designer

Founder of the XIAO’S JEWELRY

Born in Chengdu and lives in Shanghai

Senior commercial creator

New York Festivals Advertising Silver Award, China Advertisement Festival Bronze Award

COCO, the creator of XIAO'S JEWELRY has constantly shown passion and profi-ciency in all kinds of handicrafts. Her background in advertising has offered her lim-itless inspiration, making the transition to a jewelry designer feel remarkably natural. However, she recognized the importance of establishing a strong foundation in mate-rials and the production process. COCO dedicated four years to mastering a range of metalwork techniques, including inlay, grinding, polishing, wax carving and plating. She even traveled to Guizhou specifically to acquire knowledge of the thousand-year-old traditional filigree technique.

COCO's first metal work was exceptionally meaningful since it was inspired by the wall graffiti done by her then 3-year-old daughter. “It was so naive and yet so imagi-native at the same time. As a mother, I would like to keep this moment forever!” The inspiration for the "Scratching Monsters" jewelry series was born from this experi-ence.

Unbeknownst to her, this marked the beginning of a new series in the jewelry line, co-designed through the collaboration of parents and children’s graffiti. After she shared her Scratching Monsters online, many mothers brought their children's graffiti to her and the rest was history. These Scratching Monsters not only established her-self as a designer but also brought her future customers and built her reputation. Since then, she found her special niche: transforming the most unique and personal impressions into jewelry.

COCO summarized her approach to meeting customer demands in a single charac-ter—Xiao, her first name, which signifies “aware of.” “The advantage of custom-made jewelry is that customers can make any demand as they please. When the cus-tomers were not aware of what they wanted, I would figure out what they wanted when we chatted or even think further than the customers.”

A customer from Hong Kong insisted on a in-person conversation with COCO. He explained that despite meeting with several designers previously, he was never given a design that met his satisfaction. After a long, detailed discussion, COCO designed an elegant ring featuring two hands held together. This ring contributed to the suc-cess of his carefully planned wedding proposal at the foothill of Mt. Fuji. The cus-tomer was thrilled COCO was able to capture his thoughts and motivation from their conversation.

Another customer from Taiwan wanted to turn his heirloom amber into a jewelry piece. During their conversation, COCO realized how affectionate he was toward the tea mountain at the back of his ancestor's home. With that detail, COCO made the amber into the tea mountain with decorations of a gold bridge and a courtyard. By positioning the gold bridge in a hole in the amber, COCO covered the blemish with a tiny amount of gold to recreate the customer's favorite tea mountain of his childhood home. When the customer received the pendant, he was highly impressed by how well it captured the essence of the tea mountain from his memories.

COCO says, “In essence, to customize jewelry is to search for the idiosyncrasy that only belongs to none other than self.” Behind each piece of jewelry are life stories and beautiful memories of the customer. Combining personal elements into the de-sign is the key to creating the most unique jewelry. “I believe in the plasticity of life. Similar to gold, regardless of the final state it turns out to be, it will always shine through brightly.”