FRAGILITY
Cindy Zhaohan-Li
United Kingdom

Growth Ribbon reflects on fragility as a generative state, where pain, transformation, and renewal coexist in the human body. I programmed the Tibetan Auspicious Ribbon Patterns into digital algorithms, transforming their intertwining gestures into generative forms that link the virtual and the tactile, the crafted and the personal. By inputting a single body scar as a growth line, each piece evolves into an auspicious jewellery form. The code translates stretch marks, growth lines, and traces of maternity into ornaments of grace, each a mark of fragility and renewal. Designed to echo the skin’s flexibility, every piece can be folded and expanded when worn, mirroring how scars often appear near joints where the body bends and heals. Inspired by my mother’s postpartum marks and my own adolescent growth lines, painful yet vital, these wearable forms embody emotional elasticity, tracing the balance between tenderness and endurance. Growth Ribbon celebrates fragility not as weakness, but as the quiet strength of healing and life’s persistence.

Brooch « Growth Ribbon Brooch », 2022
218x150x30 mm / gr
Sterling Silver
Algorithmic design, 3D wax print, lost-wax cast, metal riveting, soldering, polishing

Necklace « Growth Ribbon Necklace », 2022
200x174x18 mm / gr
Sterling Silver
Algorithmic design, 3D wax print, lost-wax cast, metal riveting, soldering, oxidation finish

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