Designers to Watch: Liatris Yaxuan Bian
Standfirst
At New Designers 2026, jewellery designer Liatris Yaxuan Bian presented a collection shaped by nature, movement and craftsmanship. Working with silver and engraving techniques, her practice explores texture, light and the relationship between jewellery and the body.
Designer
Liatris Yaxuan Bian
Discipline
Jewellery Design
Institution
The Glasgow School of Art
Reporting & Photography
Angela Howell
Walking through the jewellery section at New Designers 2026, the work of Liatris Yaxuan Bian caught my attention. Her pieces encouraged a closer look, revealing details that were not immediately obvious from a distance.
For Liatris, making jewellery has also been a process of developing her practical and technical skills. Research, experimentation and the process of making are all important to the development of her work, with ideas evolving as she works directly with the materials.
Nature plays an important role in Liatris’ creative process. Rather than beginning with a fixed idea of what a piece of jewellery should look like, she finds inspiration by observing the world around her and allowing research to influence the direction of her designs.
There is a sense of organic movement within the collection, with forms that encourage the viewer to make their own connections with the natural world. This is particularly interesting because Liatris is comfortable with people interpreting the work differently rather than insisting on one fixed meaning.
One of the techniques Liatris is particularly proud of is engraving. Working with silver, she uses the techniqmetal’shange the appearance of the metal’s surface and create variations as the jewellery interacts with light and shadow.
The process is detailed and time-consuming, requiring patience as well as technical control. Looking closely at the pieces reveals the amount of work involved in creating surfaces that might initially appear simple.
It is this attention to craftsmanship that gives the collection much of its character.
One of the pieces that particularly interested me was a design that Liatris described as moving with the body when worn.
This relationship between jewellery and movement adds another dimension to her work. The pieces are not designed simply to be viewed as static objects. Their appearance can change with the wearer, allowing light, movement and the body to become part of how the jewellery is experienced.
For me, this was one of the most interesting elements of seeing the collection in person.
Speaking with Liatris also highlighted the importance of interpretation in her work. What one person sees in a particular form may be completely different from what another person sees.
Rather than viewing that as a problem, she appears to welcome those different responses. That openness gives the jewellery room to create a personal connection with the viewer or wearer.
Her approach also reflects the advice she would give to designers developing their own practice: look at what is around you, remain curious, continue researching and develop ideas that feel personalBian’su.
What interested me about LBian’s Yaxuan Bian’s work was the combination of technical skill and curiosity behind it. The engraving draws you towards the detail, while the movement of the pieces encourages you to think about jewellery as something that changes once it is placed on the body.
At New Designers, where so much work competes for attention, her collection demonstrated the value of looking more closely. As she continues to develop her practice and technical skills, it will be interesting to see where that combination of craftsmanship, research and observation takes her next.