3. All Its Forms
“...if I can please someone in Hackney, I can please everyone in the world!”
Born in South Korea, jeweller Myungji Cheun (known to her London friends as Gina) spent hours drawing and making with her mother, who dabbled in fashion design before she married Gina’s father. Her sister is a florist in Seoul, so Gina grew up surrounded by creativity. She says the influence of Korean culture on her and her work is inherent: “Koreans are so good with their hands and really pay attention to proportion and details”.
Gina studied fashion design at London College of Fashion. After graduating, she went to work as a womenswear designer, first at Chloe in Paris and then on to Loewe. Her introduction to jewellery came once she returned to London, when she found a job at a small jewellery brand, Nocturne. She stayed for ten years before realising she wanted to create more personal work with meaning, rather than ephemeral fashion jewellery. Driven by a desire to create long lasting, heirloom pieces, Gina decided to enrol in a silversmithing course. She slowly started making bespoke pieces for clients, relying on word of mouth, before finally starting her brand, All Its Forms earlier this year.
Ethical and sustainable practises are front and centre of everything Gina does at All Its Forms, and her clients are as passionate about the provenance of her materials as she is. Gina either buys recycled metals from trusted suppliers or melts down unwanted or broken scraps of jewellery from her clients. She sources traceable conflict-free stones from artisanal, small scale mines which employ local people and demonstrate responsible and ethical business practises. Moyo Gems in Tanzania is of particular interest as it employs women whose work has subsequently been adversely affected either by climate change or other factors. Moyo provides them with employment in the mines, ensuring a safe working environment and improving their financial security.
Gina’s works in recycled gold or silver, or brass with gold vermeil (vermeil is higher quality and longer lasting than standard gold plating). When clients bring their broken jewellery to Gina to recycle, she tests it and organises it according to carat – 9, 14, 18 etc. The gold is melted down, then turned into wire, or a long flat strip, which is physically really hard work. Alternatively the gold is sand cast, where molten gold is poured into a mould that Gina has created. Once cooled, it needs to be polished thoroughly, as when things have been sand cast there is some texture from the sand on the surface.
Her 15 years in London have played a big part in shaping Gina’s career as a jeweller, not least because of the incredible resources available to her: “working as a jeweller in London is great - we have Hatton Garden which is basically an open resource, I can go and buy gold, they have brilliant suppliers: good casting companies that use only recycled materials, as well as the best stone sellers and setters”. Hackney is hugely inspirational to Gina and her work “it’s super fashion, a really good way to test my market. I feel as though, if I can please someone in Hackney, I can please everyone in the world!” Being Asian in Hackney is so much easier too, she says “there are so many people from such a diverse range of cultures here, you don’t feel alien. The mix of cultures also results in a wide range of personal styles”
Finally, she tells me “I so enjoy it when someone buys one of my pieces, it’s so personal. It rewards all of my hard work. I also feel that, because I care about the world, my customers are also trying to make a difference, too. It’s hard to put into words just how much it means. I get very over-emotional”.
Find All Its Forms on Instagram here, go here to find out more about the hands in the image above left and here to shop from the website.