Ling-Yen Jones: Biography
I am a Mendocino County jeweler working mainly in silver, semi-precious stones, and pearls. My style ranges from the traditional to the modern, and is completely unique. All of my pieces are individually handmade, and are therefore one-of-a-kind or in small series with repeating motifs.
My training is with David Laplantz at Humboldt State University, at Monterey Peninsula College, and various Mendocino Art Center workshops and assistantships.
I am presently working with my company Ling-Yen designs and selling my work on etsy, and other exhibition and show venues. I am working as gallery coordinator of the Coast Highway Artist Collective in Point Arena.
I have curated and exhibited in several shows in the past. I also have shown in The Pacific Grove Art Center, Gualala Art Center, and The Mendocino Art Center. I have been honored with a second place award at the North Coast Artist Guild, Salon show in Gualala in 2017.
I define jewelry as creations, which are useful, artistic, symbolic, identifying, and an expression of personal ideas. In my earring line some of the motifs I use are leaves, birds, and windows. When these elements and others are integrated into a piece they can represent new beginnings, changes, hope, and further growth in ones self. The materials that I enjoy using most are sterling silver, copper, gold, pearls, and semiprecious stones. My intention for each one-of-a-kind piece are that it is clean looking, distinctive, and artistically rendered.
The pieces with the Asian like faces are inspired by the feminine, graceful, and romantic scenes of the Ukiyo-E period of Japanese art. The piece, “Unmentionables”, has different faces, all expressions of surprise, serenity, wonder, and ecstasy. On the back of the piece there are hidden hand cut flowers, roller printed leaf patterns, and scenes of paired lovers. Ukiyo-E, or images of the floating world, were representations of the everyday life of Japan in the 16th through the 19th centuries. This piece brings together my own interest in the expressive power of faces, while exploring the serenity and grace of the everyday in my own time.