Yihan Zhang

The inspiration for this five-piece design came from the garden that my mother and I tended together. My mother taught me how to graft plants and introduced me to various gardening tools. During that period of time, every time I did something, it was deeply engraved in my mind - my mother's meticulous guidance, the tenacity of the plants, and the time we spent together in the garden waiting to grow and harvest have become the most tender part of my memory. I wanted to capture this emotion in an object through design, so I tried to introduce the concept of ‘grafting’ to gardening tools and extend it to the language of jewellery.

I started my experiment with the combination of jewellery and gardening tools, just like the grafting of plants, where every attempt is accompanied by adaptation and uncertainty. The combination of the two objects retains some of their respective functions, but may also be limited by the fusion. But it is this ‘imperfect symbiosis’ that embodies the essence of grafting. I have also added botanical elements to each piece to make the theme of gardening more tangible. In terms of materials, I chose wood and brass, the physical fusion of which maps out my understanding of ‘grafting’ - a way of building relationships out of differences.