Swallowscope: Defining the Gap Between Tradition and Modernism

Traditional Chinese handcrafts have been skillfully produced for thousands of years. Cherida Zhang, the creator of swallowscope, uses her platform to preserve and share the artistry of Chinese knotting.

By combining freshwater pearls and crystals with Chinese imagery, she creates intricate pastel jewellery that is both elegant and evokes feelings of nostalgia. Hannah from Team G.URL had the honour of talking with Cherida about how she perceives herself, her craft, and her role in preserving Chinese handcrafts.

Why did you choose the phrase 燕归来 (yan gui lai) as the inspiration for the name of your shop?

At the time, I was going through quite a strange transition period. I had a rejection in terms of my dream university, and my mental health was at a little bit of a low. I realized that the way I was working was so terribly unhealthy. My self-worth was equated with how much I achieved, maybe because of my culture, upbringing, and just my natural disposition. That rejection provided such a needed slap in the face. At the end of the day, health and yourself should come first; I hadn’t been able to, or I hadn’t wanted to believe in that perspective before.

The essence of the poem is similar. The poet is struggling with life and contemplating how nature gets to be cyclical: the grass always grows back, spring happens every year, the swallows always return, etc. He is struggling with the idea that human life is linear; you can’t go back to the past. It’s strange because even though it’s a mournful poem, when I read it, I felt very reassured that even though you can’t go back to the past, and there is no certainty in the future, there’s a bigger sense of what’s real and what’s important, which is certainty that the world will keep spinning, the grass will keep growing, and so on.

“Trust that everything which should come back will come back to you.”

The phrase yan gui lai, the swallows return, comes from the fact that swallows make their nests in homes in some parts of China. They’ll fly away and then return every year. It’s the feeling that life has a constant that you can rely on, even if other things are out of control. That phrase was very freeing and meaningful to where I was at that time.

It’s still very meaningful to me now. I took a year out, and in that time, I started swallowscope. I just focused on my creative outlet, which is something that I always loved. I reapplied for the course I wanted to study—I’m at Cambridge studying chemistry at the moment—and was accepted. Freeing myself from fearing that linearity really helped. I kind of hate the phrase go with the flow, but it’s more like, trust that everything which should come back will come back to you.

It also has broader implications. If I think about it as applied to Chinese culture, the amount of people who are doing these crafts is diminishing. But I hope that the things that should be preserved will be preserved.

Was it challenging to choose swallowscope as the English translation?

Yes, it was! Also, one of the reasons why yan gui lai, like swallows in general are important to me is because my mum’s name is 周燕; her name is Swallow, basically. I was always enamoured with swallows for this reason too.

On a very basic level, you can take scope as perspective, right? Sometimes it feels a bit cringe to assign meaning to things like this. But, in a very literal sense, these pieces can give you perspective! It’s both a perspective on reflecting on myself and a reflection for Chinese cultural crafts.

I really struggle with choosing names for things.

Me too, I struggle so so much!

What inspired you to combine Chinese knotting with jewellery making?

There are two main reasons. As a Chinese person, you grow up with these very big ones, usually in red and thicker cords, around the house or hanging in a car. They are more celebratory, or representative of happiness, or bringing prosperity into the family, those kinds of things.

When I first started making them, I was just making jewellery for myself. It was like, oh, I see these very beautiful things, and I want to integrate it into my life and carry a bit of my culture with me. Also, I was limited in materials and what I had access to. So, I would play around with the things I had and just make knots. Even the tails of the butterflies, I didn’t know I was going to do that, if that makes sense. I had a knot, and I had loose ends. After I made something, it just clicked to me that, oh, this should be the size and the way it looks, like, I would wear this.

Another reason is that inside the tea shop that my family and I always frequent when we go back to Chengdu, at the back, there’s a lady who makes jewellery. Her training is in jade, and she uses Chinese knotting to make beautiful accessories and pieces. Now, she not only works with jade but also other precious stones or whatever her clients bring to her. I would watch her make things while my mum was looking at tea-ware. So, I had prior exposure to knotting and knew string could be used for jewellery.

I’ve always really admired her and wished that I could do that. To me, it felt like such a dream life. You’re working in the back of a tea house, this river flowing through the back. It’s her own workshop. Everything surrounding her is beautiful. She gets to focus and make things that she wants all day. To young me, it was such a dream. I’m actually going to start working with her for swallowscope so look forward to her work too! She is like a mentor to me, so I am really excited.

“At the end of the day, health and yourself should come first; I hadn’t wanted to believe in that perspective before.”

___STEADY_PAYWALL___

What was the thought process that went into making the butterfly knot earrings?

When you’re somebody who’s creative and making things, you’re always wanting to improve yourself and try new things, right? For a while, I’d been focusing on the good luck knot. I always want to learn new things. So, I was looking through a lot of knots, how they were used, meanings, and things like that.

First, I like the butterfly because, in Chinese imagery, they should always come in pairs. They represent two lovers or a friendship. I think, classically, it’s for romance, but I always interpreted it as a beautiful and natural interaction between two people. The fact that earrings come in pairs is a very natural application of that imagery. That pairwise interaction was really special. When I’m making it, this is the meaning or the sense that I want somebody else to be able to carry into their lives.

The other reason is that a lot of knots don’t have a super sturdy centre, or they have too many loops on the outside. A technical aspect was that I could see it being okay on earrings.

How do you balance modern and traditional elements in your designs?

The first thing that comes to mind is that I don’t always use traditional colours. Traditionally, Chinese knots are made in red. I do use red because it’s both culturally significant and a colour I like, but a lot of my colours are lighter or pastel. They’re not the traditional deep blues, greens, and golds that are most common in Chinese imagery. Even though I still use some traditional colours, I also want to cater to the palette that I’m drawn to. That’s one way that modern things influence it. The other is the way I accessorize and use materials. The combination of pearls and crystals with knotting isn’t so traditional in Chinese crafts!

Are the 景泰蓝 (jing tai lan) beads that you use in your earrings and bracelets a traditional aspect?

Traditionally, if something uses jing tai lan, it’s usually only that. It will be a string of beads and it’s only made of that material. If it’s an earring, it might just be a piece of jing tai lan. A lot of Chinese handcrafts have set ways to be used—this thing is used here, and that’s the only application it will appear in. I’ve never been trained in the way that they have: the starting point is the final product and then you work backwards. Whereas I normally look at the craft or individual part first and then think how it can be used. When I see those beads, my first thought is that they will look nicest if it is just one bead or a few beads. So, that’s how I started using them. Also, through this method, I can bring in more accessories that maybe people haven’t seen before.

Is it difficult to source these materials?

Jing tai lan beads were made in the ‘70s and ‘80s, but now they aren’t really being made. Previously, I had been purchasing old stock and I sourced from sellers online. But people’s stock has really diminished in the last three or four years. For that reason, a lot of the beads I previously used or have collected, you cannot easily find anymore. It’s on my to do list to go and see if I can source any more of them in person.

During your recent visit to China, you had the opportunity to connect with some local crafts people. Was there a particular moment that left a strong impression on you?

In Chengdu, the city where my family is from, there is this craft called 银花丝手工 (Silver Filigree). The traditional application was only in the Imperial Palace, and it was used for pots, tableware and paintings. The workshop that used to be in my city closed down, and all of the workers were let off.

There was one lady who wanted to continue the craftsmanship. So, she basically started her own workshop in her apartment. She had to go and find the people who used to work in the factory and ask them to pass down their knowledge. Her husband was an engineer who understood chemistry, and he helped her figure out a lot of the firing and processing aspects from scratch. She basically built back up this craft by herself in her apartment with the help of her husband and the knowledge of these people. When things became more established, she slowly started to hire people and started trying to teach people again.

Her daughter is currently continuing with what she’s doing. We are almost in a similar part of life, and our transition to making jewellery is very similar. Both of us were exposed to traditional crafts, and then both of us want to preserve it and make it wearable and usable. Right now, they have a lot of jewellery. I will be selling their things on swallowscope and working together with them for commissions and on designs. Making that connection, becoming friends with her, seeing that workshop, being able to take pictures and record, and ask questions were some of the most like, oh my gosh, moments for me! I grew up seeing these crafts. My mom has pieces from them that she purchased before I was born. To see what they were doing and learn about everything they’re going through was very eye-opening and felt super special. I felt super honoured to be able to be part of documenting what they do.

Right now, she’s only selling out of that shop. So, you’re planning to give her a global platform?

Yeah, exactly. I have everything documented. All photos taken. I recorded a few videos, so hopefully, I’ll put together a small video of the workshop, and you can see how they work and the people who work there. Those pieces will be coming out in December, I think.

“To make beautiful things, your mind needs to be able to settle.”

It’s unbelievable that it’s all handmade!

The thinnest wires that they use are thinner than your hair! And it’s hand pulled. So, you have to hand-pull that thinness. Then, they twist two threads together. That’s the basis of many of the patterns. I was in so much awe when I was there. That was crazy!

That sounds like it would be really taxing on the hands. Is that why these crafts are less common?

I think that’s a huge part of it. She said she gets quite a few people who want to learn, but most leave within two months. Not only is it physically taxing to your body and your back if you’re not careful— because you have to stay in the same position to work—but she also said that there’s a huge issue with people’s concentration and attention span. To make beautiful things, your mind needs to be able to settle. She made the observation that a lot of young people’s minds these days are not able to settle in that way. When you are working, you can’t watch something on the side and multitask; your whole focus needs to be on that thing.

Actually, her working conditions are very sustainable, and the worker welfare is front of mind. They have to take an hour lunch break, and they have to leave by a certain time. As she said, this work requires highly skilled craftspeople and their skills are almost impossible to replace, so she has to protect them on a physical level.

My hands cramp up really quickly. When you do your knotting, do you find your hands cramping up?

My hands don’t cramp up, but they get very calloused. I am pulling knots all the time and exerting force, either directly with my hands or with a set of small tweezers, and where they hold, it always hurts because it’s pushed against something. I used to feel a bit sad about this, but now I’m just like, it’s my work, it’s whatever! My hands get very calloused, and because I’m using fire, I have to touch heat a lot to seal things—you melt the end of the string, and you push it down with your finger. Even though I should find a tool, so I don’t keep exposing my hand, some part of me is just like, this is what I’m familiar with. Mainly, the things that hurt the most are my shoulders and back. That is why I tend to do things in drops; it’s physically unsustainable to be making all the time and so the drops give me breaks between more intense periods.

Also, because of university. Cambridge’s schedule is very full-on. They recommend we don’t have jobs outside of studies, so that is also why my swallowscope schedule is in a drop format. I’ll make things when I can and then sell everything at once when I’m able to dedicate my time to packaging everything nicely and talking to people.

With the silver thread craft, are you planning to make a post like the one you made about the silk embroidered bags?

Yeah, my long-term goal for the swallowscope website is to redo it and have a section where I publish journal articles about the crafts. Hopefully, I will include pictures of the actual craftspeople and the history of each craft. It will be categorized and sectioned off into Chinese knotting, silver crafts, embroidery, etc. That way, as I learn more —because I’m learning so much all of the time —I can share it too. I know so little about Chinese traditional crafts compared to what there is to know. I’m always reading and always learning about things, and I would like to have a space to publish these things and share them with people. That way, you know what you’re purchasing and using.

How does it feel to have this platform where you can promote sharing and preserving Chinese craftsmanship?

Honestly, it is very surreal. I always find myself repeating the fact that I’m endlessly grateful, and I feel so honoured. People will thank me for making things, and I’m like, this is the wrong direction of thanks! I should be thanking you! I am thanking you and everybody else for being present and being interested. It’s a very surreal and strange feeling. Internally, my self-perception is that I’m not that important. I feel more like a bridge than anything related to myself. These beautiful things already exist, these crafts, but they’re just not accessible to the outsider’s eye. I get to bridge the gap between these two things. I feel lucky to do that. I still don’t know how to process the fact that so many people follow me, who have been following me for so long, and are interested in and read the things that I write and look at the pictures I post and like the things that I make.

I don’t feel that I’m separate from the people who follow me. I’m thankful that my memory is quite good because I pretty much remember everybody that I’ve ever shipped to and everybody I’ve ever talked to. If somebody comes up on my platform when they buy something, I always feel so happy because I either recognize their name and this is the second time or third time they’ve purchased something from me, or I recognize their name from their Instagram handle and I’m like, ahh, hello!

I used to feel a little bit of pressure. Not in terms of these people expect things from me, but more like I had an expectation of myself to be more present online and more consistent. As I was entering university and acclimatizing to different demands, it took me two years to find that balance between swallowscope and studies. I’ve found it this summer, at least. I’m lucky to have a community that is receptive and understanding.