Wenjing Yang started making jewelry as a hobby, giving her creations to friends and loved ones as gifts. But the Portland, Oregon–based jewelry designer, who sells her work under the name A Nod to Design, encountered a noxious roadblock. About a year into working with metal, the toxic effects had started to take root. “My lungs had a lot of problems with the soldering and the fumes,” she says. “I had this cough that nobody could figure out.” She needed to find a balance.
So she did. In 2019, Yang was playing around with materials when she hit upon the idea of using beadwork in her jewelry. It was a logical fit. “After the metal jewelry, I thought maybe I should use a material that’s more friendly,” she says. “With beading, you use a thread and needle, which I’m so familiar with as a clothing designer,” she says. In necklaces such as Serendipity, Eternity, and Layer, cascading sheets of tiny beads are combined with dainty chains in silver, gold, and brass to create art deco–like compositions. Stitched together, the glass beads in Yang’s bracelets, necklaces, rings, and earrings take on significant heft. Placed beside the delicate chains, there’s an equilibrium to the work. “Chains have a lot of movement and fluidity, and beads can provide structure,” she says. “They complement each other.”
