The Inspiration Behind Sketch Collection

Founders Sol and Wen first showed off their designs for the Sketch Collection at a small exhibition hall in Qianhai, Shenzhen in 2018. In 2023, they exhibited the collection at Art Central in Hong Kong, a subsidiary event of Art Basel. Between those two dates, the Sketch Collection became one of Amoy's top-selling ranges — and one of the most frequently misunderstood.

What the Sketch Collection Is

The pieces in the Sketch Collection are based on abstract renderings of the female body. Not anatomical illustrations, not literal portraits — gestures. Sol works from quick drawings that capture a posture or a line rather than a form in full. The criterion for a sketch that becomes a piece is the same as the criterion for a good drawing: it has to hold tension. A line that is too complete closes the object down. A line that leaves something unresolved keeps the viewer engaged.

The name comes from the process. These are jewelry pieces made from sketches, in the same way that a sculptor might work from a maquette. The sketch is not a preliminary step toward a finished object — it is the object. The roughness is intentional.

The 2018 Qianhai Exhibition

Qianhai is a special economic zone in Shenzhen, built on reclaimed land and designed from the start as a financial and technology hub. The exhibition space where Sol and Wen first showed the Sketch pieces was small and not well-known. The audience was local — mostly people who worked in the area and came in out of curiosity. The response was immediate and divided: some visitors found the pieces too abstract, others found them exactly right. That division has followed the collection ever since, and Sol and Wen consider it a sign that the work is doing what it should.

Art Central Hong Kong 2023

Art Central is held annually in Hong Kong during Art Basel week. It is a mid-tier fair — more accessible than Art Basel itself, more rigorous than most commercial shows. Showing the Sketch Collection there in 2023 was a different experience from the 2018 Qianhai exhibition. The audience was international, the context was explicitly art rather than design, and the pieces were seen alongside work by artists from across Asia and beyond.

The pieces that attracted the most attention at Art Central were the earrings — specifically the way they move when worn. A static photograph of a Sketch piece shows the line. Seeing the piece on a person shows something else: the line in relation to a body, which is what it was always meant to be.

The Pieces

Sketch Legging Earrings

The Sketch Legging Earrings are the most direct translation of the original drawings into jewelry. The form is a pair of legs — abstracted to the point where the reading is ambiguous, but not so abstracted that the reference disappears. They are drop earrings, which means the movement when worn is part of the piece. These are the most-gifted item in the Sketch Collection, partly because the form is legible enough to explain and abstract enough to be interesting.

Ruby Sketch Body Earrings

The Ruby Sketch Body Earrings add a ruby to the abstract body form. The stone is not decorative in the conventional sense — it marks a specific point on the form, which changes how the line reads. The ruby version is chosen by customers who want the Sketch Collection to be visible; the plain silver version is chosen by customers who want it to be quiet. Both are correct readings of the same piece.

Body Earrings

The Body Earrings are the most reduced piece in the collection — the form stripped to its minimum. Where the Legging Earrings retain a specific reference and the Ruby version adds a stone, the Body Earrings are simply the line. They are the piece Sol and Wen wear most often themselves, which is the clearest statement of what the collection is trying to do.

How to Wear Them

The Sketch pieces work best when they are given space. Wearing them with a plain neckline — a crew neck, a collarless shirt, a simple dress — lets the line read without competition. They can be layered with other pieces from the Amoy range, but the pairing that works best is with something from the Zen Minimalist collection: a simple stud or a short chain that does not draw attention away from the Sketch form.

The earrings are drop earrings, which means they are not suited to every occasion. They are not office jewelry in the conventional sense — they are too present for that. They are better suited to evenings, to events, to occasions where the point is to be seen.

Who Buys Them

The Sketch Collection is bought by people who are comfortable with abstraction — who do not need a piece of jewelry to be immediately legible to everyone in the room. It is also bought as a gift for people in that category: artists, designers, people who work in creative fields and who would find a more conventional piece of jewelry uninteresting. The most common gift occasion is a birthday, followed by a significant anniversary. It is rarely bought as a Christmas gift, which is consistent with the collection's character: it is not a safe choice, and it is not meant to be.

The full Sketch Collection is available at amoy.jewelry/collections/sketch-collection. All pieces are 925 sterling silver, made not to tarnish.