The Iridescent Allure of Mother-of-Pearl

“I tried to express the surging blue waves, the ocean shimmering under the moonlight, the waves full of energy as they embrace an island, and much more.”
—Jian Yoo

Mother-of-pearl, also known as nacre, has been used as a lacquerware inlay for over a thousand years in China, Japan, and Korea.

Mother-of-pearl is found in sea mollusks like pearl oysters, freshwater mussels, and abalone. With its iridescent colours, it’s a uniquely beautiful organic material for crafting jewellery, furniture, and art.

In Korea, mother-of-pearl is most commonly used to create inlays for lacquered furniture and decorative objects. Such items are known as najeon chilgi in Korean (najeon meaning mother-of-pearl, and chilgi meaning lacquerware) and often depict motifs from nature, such as flowers, birds, and butterflies.

Najeon chilgi pieces usually have a traditional Eastern aesthetic, but Korean artist Jian Yoo has infused new life into this age-old art form with her contemporary mother-of-pearl creations.

The savoir-faire of Korean lacquer craft

Yoo is well acquainted with lacquer craft. Her father, Chulhyun Yoo, is a famous najeon chilgi craftsman who opened his own mother-of-pearl inlaying studio in South Korea.

Growing up, Yoo spent considerable time in his workshop, familiarizing herself with mother-of-pearl’s physical and tactile properties and understanding how to use the precious material to craft beautiful objects.

Her childhood home was filled with such furniture and art, and Yoo assumed every home was the same. When she went to New York to study design, however, she discovered this wasn’t the case.

“Even among people who know what mother-of-pearl is, there aren’t many who’ve personally used and encountered its beauty up close. That made me realize that I had grown up with a very unique and special experience,” Yoo says.

Although she didn’t initially plan to follow in her father’s footsteps, after evaluating her artistic strengths and weaknesses she decided to embrace her roots.

These days, Yoo operates her studio Arijian in Namyangju, South Korea, where she creates contemporary furniture, sculptures, and fine art using mother-of-pearl and other materials, incorporating both traditional knowledge and her unique ideas.

According to Yoo, Korea’s Golden Age of najeon chilgi lasted from the 1970s to the 1990s, when mother-of-pearl was plentiful, and many skilled craftsmen worked with the material. During this time, mother-of-pearl was used to create patterns on furniture.

“From design to technique, everything about najeon chilgi is very innovative, and despite the passing of time there are so many pieces [from the Golden Age] that still look incredibly sophisticated. This is the reason why I use mother-of-pearl as the raw material for my art,” Yoo says.

Inspired by nature

In her studio, Yoo creates the designs, then works with master najeon chilgi craftsmen to bring them to life.

“Mother-of-pearl is so charming because its shine changes according to various elements, including the direction and intensity of the light, the illumination, the movement of the viewer, the perspective, and the distance,” Yoo says.

“I call this the material’s unique sensitivity, and it’s my first priority to make sure that its characteristics are included in the artwork as much as possible.”

Yoo’s favourite collection is Beyond the Ocean – The Flow, consisting of a series of organically shaped mother-of-pearl sculptures that resemble smoothened ocean boulders.

“I tried to express the surging blue waves, the ocean shimmering under the moonlight, the waves full of energy as they embrace an island, and much more,” Yoo says.

The collection was exhibited in 2022 at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris alongside works from other Korean contemporary artists.

“As a natural material that’s born and bred in the ocean, mother-of-pearl embraces a long flow of time that’s as deep and wide as the vast ocean. That’s why even the smallest piece of mother-of-pearl holds a variety of colours and lights within,” Yoo says.

Most of her works are, in fact, inspired by nature. In The Moon series, images of the moonlit ocean are transferred onto a traditional Korean moon jar or a flat surface.

Korean culture and architecture also inform Yoo’s work. Her Got table sculptures, for example, are based on the traditional Korean got hat worn by Korean men during the Joseon era (1392–1897) to help shield their faces from the sun.

By learning from her cultural heritage, Yoo is able to highlight the unique qualities of mother-of-pearl and inspire new generations of people with its versatility and beauty.