By Seo Dong-shin
Staff Reporter
The jewelry business is traditionally a family-oriented and exclusive domain in South Korea, where newcomers forever remain outsiders in the industry. Against this backdrop, it was certainly a bold decision _ and perhaps also a clever strategy _ for two women relatively new to the industry to launch a project that insiders here have seldom tried before.
Jung Hye-ja, 59, and Kim Hue-kyeong, 48, co-CEOs of fine jewelry shop ``In Story,'' transposed the works of renowned Korean sculptor Moonshin (1923-1995) to fine jewelry items such as brooches, earrings, necklaces and rings.
Artist Moonshin is well known and popular in Europe, but that was not the only reason behind choosing his works for this ambitious project that eventually will test the overseas market. Symmetry, which symbolizes order of the universe and archetypal image of life, is the core feature of Moonshin's sculptures, and has already created inspiration for fashion designers as well as musicians. Now it's jewelry's turn.
``The shape of the sculptures just look like they were destined to be made into jewelry,'' Jung said.
The two CEOs befriended each other about 15 years ago, working as producer and writer respectively at KBS.
For the Moonshin project, the two brought together their respective strengths. Kim, who first started her own jewelry business about five years ago, had precious stones in stock, and oversaw the design. Jung, who joined Kim about six months ago, had expertise in classical music, and named pieces of jewelry after well-known opera arias.
For example, a serene-looking brooch with blue sapphires and diamonds bears the name ``Che gelida manina'' (your tiny hand is frozen) from Puccini's opera ``La Boheme,'' while a majestic necklace of diamonds and white gold is ``The Queen of the Night's Aria'' from Mozart's ``The Magic Flute.'' A promotional CD containing these arias is available.
``After all, jewelry is about fantasy. Without it, jewels are just stones from nature,'' Jung said. ``So I wanted to infuse more fantasy into them. Besides, they were just too pretty to be called by numbers.''