Liatris Yaxuan Bian
Jellyfish — Cycles of Transformation
This collection began during a period in which Yaxuan Bian experienced emotional suspension and uncertainty surrounding her own direction. She spent time alone beside the ocean, as a place to escape. During this time, she encountered stranded jellyfish for the first time, an experience that remained with her long afterwards.
That condition of drifting gradually became the emotional foundation of the project.
This project began through an ongoing fascination with jellyfish and the way they exist in a constant state of transformation. Using the jellyfish life cycle as a structural framework, the collection is divided into four stages: Seeds – Growth – Bloom – Fade. Each stage represents a different biological condition and emotional atmosphere, translated into a distinct jewellery language through material, structure, colour, and surface.
Through metals, enamel, mother of pearl, pearls, etc…, the project explores a suspended state between existence and disappearance. Jewellery becomes a medium that carries emotion, memory, fragility, and adaptation transformation.
The pieces were developed through research into marine biology, scientific illustration, and repeated paper-cutting experiments, which gradually abstracted jellyfish anatomy into a personal visual language.
Jellyshish Stage II: Strobila
Stage II — Growth
Concept:
Growth corresponds to the jellyfish polyp stage.
At this point, the organism develops through branching and multiplication.
This stage explores expansion, connection, and structural development.
The jewellery becomes more modular and organic, resembling plant systems or underwater growth.
Materials: Silver, Mother of Pearl, Pearls
Design Language: Modular construction, Branching structures, Repetition, Organic extension, Layered composition
For Sale: 520
Jellyfish Stage III: Bloom
Stage III — Bloom
Concept:
Bloom reflects the free-swimming medusa stage of the jellyfish life cycle.
This is the most visually expressive and emotionally expansive stage within the collection.
The pieces explore movement, openness, colour, and drifting atmospheric presence.
The use of vibrant enamel creates associations with blooming organisms suspended underwater.
Materials: Copper, Enamel, Pearls, Spray Paint, Silver Leaf
Enamel became material because of its relationship to translucency, colour layering, and light reflection. Liatris Yaxuan Bian was interested in creating low-saturation dreamlike colours inspired by the semi-transparent quality of jellyfish bodies.
For Sale: 280.680.240
For Sale: 1800
Jelleyfish Stage I: Seeds
Stage I — Seeds
Concept：
Seeds represents the earliest developmental condition within the jellyfish life cycle.
This stage focuses on potential, simplicity, and the beginning of formation.
The pieces are smaller in scale and concentrate on circular structures inspired by the oval forms found within jellyfish anatomy.
This stage explores ideas of origin, emotional quietness, and contained growth.
Materials：Silver, Mother of Pearl
Design Language: Circular forms, Small-scale compositions, Geometric, Clean curves, Minimal layered structures
For Sale: 520
For Sale: 350
For Sale: 520
Jellyfish Stage II: Growth
The project developed through continuous research into jellyfish biology, movement, environmental behaviour, and life cycles.
Jellyfish are organisms almost entirely made of water. They have drifted through the oceans for more than 500 million years, continuously adapting to changing environments. When they die, they leave almost no trace behind, dissolving back into the sea itself. Their bodies contain over 95% water, they have no brain, no heart, and no skeletal structure.
Different species possess extraordinary biological abilities such as regeneration, bioluminescence, and extreme environmental adaptation.
The more she researched jellyfish, the more she realised that their existence represented a unique philosophy of survival, this became deeply connected to my own emotional and psychological experiences.
For Sale: 1480
