Yú Hǎiliáng

于海良(Yú Hǎiliáng) Kevin Yu, founder of Kevin Thorne Jewellery, is a jewellery designer whose background in architecture and calligraphy shapes the approach he takes in his work. Working primarily with silver (“due to its neutrality”), he juxtaposes clean and angular lines with delicate detail and textures, often integrating unexpected pearl and gemstone pairings. “Making each piece of jewellery is like writing a story”, he has said. Each piece he creates “becomes a conduit, holding a personal conversation between me and the other”.

Born in Jinan, Shandong, Yu moved to Aotearoa New Zealand in 2010 to undertake his Master’s in Architecture. After working in the industry for a number of years, he describes turning 30 and “wondering if he’d taken the right path”. His decision to leave architecture to pursue full-time jewellery-making was an intuitive one: years earlier, he’d taken a weekend ring-making workshop, enjoying it so much he set up a home studio in his garage, making “a ring every morning before going to work.”

He spent the next two years developing his craft at Workshop 6 before setting up at The Shelter in 2022 and, more recently, establishing his own creative space, Nobody’s, with Rey Authunsson and Noah Whaiapu in downtown Tāmaki Makaurau.

Yu describes his jewellery practice as informed by both his cultural and professional life. “My parents exposed me to many traditional art forms when I was young,” he has explained, citing calligraphy, painting and weiqi as aesthetics “embossed in me subconsciously”. This is evidenced, for example, in his collection Xuān where he uses silver to gesture towards xuānzhi, traditional Chinese calligraphy paper.

Architecture, on the other hand, “offered me a methodology, a way of thinking”. He describes how each piece is developed according to three elements, form, structure and humanity:

1. Form – Appreciating the texture, shape, colour, and material of something. For example, an Art Deco-style building in Sydney and the way the light played off it inspired his SHARD pieces.

2. Structure – An aspect of his process that stems from his architectural training – analysing and appreciating the marriage of structure and aesthetics.

3. Humanity – The emotions we feel and the beauty that can come from being inspired by feeling. “I wear my joy, sadness and pride on my neck, ears and fingers.”

He explains that he chose his name from a dictionary. “When I was in high school, we were going to the UK for an exchange programme, so we all picked English names that English people could pronounce.” When it came to his jewellery line, he kept the name as a form of separation from himself, adding the surname Thorne as a gesture towards the thorns on a rose. “It’s a bit dark, a bit dangerous,I like that, and I don’t take the name very seriously.” He describes how it has become a form of a Trojan horse. “The aesthetic I have is such a Chinese aesthetic, and having a non-Chinese name is interesting because people approach the work without any assumptions. As a result, I’ve been able to have a lot of conversations with people about what a Chinese aesthetic is.”

With Nobody’s, he sees an opportunity to deepen his practice as a creative in Aotearoa. “Nobody’s is a manifestation of my partnership with Rey and my friendship with Noah. We have similar values and similar beliefs, but different cultures and we enjoy learning from each other.” Much of their ethos centres around creating a metaphorical ‘abundance of the soil’ feeding the integrity of the individual, allowing the collective to be their authentic selves and contribute to a sustainable ecosystem.

Central to this is connection. “I believe there are too many divides and too few connections that bring people together, bring kindness, bring understanding.” This year, the trio are spending time not only establishing their business but deepening their mutual understanding of one another, travelling to one another’s hometowns — so far visiting Jinan and Pawarenga. “We learn about ourselves, we learn about each other, and through each other, we understand each other’s communities and cultures.”

Kevin Thorne Jewellery

Nobody’s

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