Qiuwen Lyu (Luna)

Profession

Foundation Plus Alum

College

Central Saint Martins

Person Type

Alumni

Biography

Interview

Tell us a little bit about yourself and what inspires your work.

I'm Qiuwen Lyu (Luna), a designer/storyteller working within the fields of jewellery. My jewellery works are another side of me, playing the role as a concrete and tangible carrier of my ideas. Though intimate, we are independent of each other.

Most of my inspiration comes from history and culture. I deconstruct and extract elements from a corner of a grand background, focusing on the narrative and conceptual nature of jewellery, so that it reflects the phenomena of our contemporary life and society. Of course, it can also be said that this is a way to get inspiration, by temporarily escaping from the moment in order to stand in a different perspective than usual. For my material-driven works, the inspiration usually comes from flea markets, a perfect place for an old-fashioned ‘treasure’ hunter like me.

What have you been up to since graduating from Foundation Plus Diploma in Art and Design at Central Saint Martins?

I studied BA Fashion Jewellery at London College of Fashion after graduating from FAD Plus. It's been less than a year since I graduated from there. I’m carried by enthusiasm, I’m a part of another thrilling place, the days just fly by. In my new journey, I’ve made various new works and learned various technical skills. I feel that working on a project is like a cycle. Every time I start a new project, I go through the whole design process. In this way, I can continue to make up for my shortcomings, using what I learned in the last project to optimise each stage of my design process, and I can clearly see my improvements in mindset and craftsmanship. I have many things to learn and countless questions to answer. The way ahead is long, I shall search high and low.

How would you describe your experience on the Foundation Plus Diploma in Art and Design course, and how did it encourage the way you work now?

It was an irreplaceable experience for me. It ran through the summer before my first year of undergraduate study. The important thing during this course is that I perceived the stimulated potential in me. Unlike the usual one-year Foundation, the duration of FAD Plus is about three months, so in this quick-paced environment, my creativity, learning ability and time management have been greatly improved. Let’s talk about creativity first. I was a little stressed when I noticed that each small project runs for one week and we shall complete our final project in six weeks, but I soon realised that the reason for my pressure was that I’m too serious about making an artwork. As someone who used to stick to many ‘big ideas’, sometimes I was hindered by my mindset from being practical and playful.

During this course, I’ve learned about how to set my sight on something small and something daily. As for learning ability, I was surprised when I looked back on how many skills I’ve learned. For example, I had never used wood as the material in my previous works due to the lack of opportunity to try woodworking. But after I walked into the wood workshop in the Archway campus, I swiftly find my interest in this material. The metal workshop is fascinating as well. For my final project, I spent most of my time in it, learning how to work with steel, progressing by practicing. As such, the techniques and materials used in my final works of FAD Plus are completely different from all my previous projects, which encouraged me to unhesitatingly break through my boundaries in my later study and enjoy the process of material experiments more.

In terms of time management, during the course we did constant reflection and scheduling on Workflow, which guaranteed high efficiency and eased the pressure, because I knew how to achieve my goal step-by-step, week-by-week. This habit is still helpful to me now, because multitasking has become the norm, and it's not easy to mess up with a reasonable plan.

What words of advice would you give to a student studying for a Foundation Plus Diploma in Art and Design?

Go all out to immerse yourself in each project and let your creativity kick in
For big ideas, start small.
Find your own way of working and find your own voice.
Use the workshop more. There are sufficient facilities for you to make amazing works.
Plan the timeline of each project, so that you can roughly know how much time you have for sample making and when shall you move on to make final products
Sketchbook is truly useful. Take down your ideas timely, otherwise they will fly away. In this way, if you forget where an element comes from, you can always look back.
Ask tutors and technicians if you are stuck somewhere.
Do more research. Do it for the sake of developing your work instead of researching for the completion of the research task.

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