Written by Baba Colin Chee
Baba Colin Chee speaks to Baba Thomis Kwan who designed and fabricated the brooch which was eventually acquired by Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a gift to the Queen from then-President Dr Tony Tan to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee. Thomis Kwan is the creative force and owner of Foundation Jewellers.
CC: When did you first design and fabricate the Bird of Paradise brooch?
TK: It was sometime in 2012 when the Bird of Paradise brooch or kerosang came into being. The whole process took about three months. Many of our large kerosangs do take that long to design and create. Some take even longer because we could be struggling with new ideas on how to proceed to make a piece better and more unique than the last one. We don’t just fabricate to sell. We really try to create something new each time, like fine art. I draw inspiration from old classic pieces that I keep as well as looking at magazines, going to jewellery exhibitions to see and learn how other brands create theirs, and discussing with my team of dedicated craftsmen and masters to try to improve on our own pieces.
CC: When did Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs visit Foundation to obtain the Bird of Paradise brooch from you?
TK: It was soon after the kerosang was completed that someone from MFA came by our shop to pick a gift for a foreign dignitary. This was all we were told. The MFA official was very discreet. It was not her first time at our atelier. Before this visit, she had come to Foundation on two earlier occasions to acquire gifts for other well-known dignitaries. The official would always have a budget in mind and while she would not tell us what it is we can roughly tell when items we offer at a certain price range are rejected. They don’t ask for discounts. Everything is above board which makes it easy to deal with them. On this occasion, she chose the Bird of Paradise brooch and others in other designs. She took photos of them and a few days later said they had decided on the Bird of Paradise for one dignitary they had in mind, and two other floral designs for another two dignitaries. This was all we knew.
CC: When did you first realise that Queen Elizabeth was wearing Foundation’s Bird of Paradise kerosang?
TK: We didn’t give much thought to the sale to MFA. They are just so discreet about their purchases. However, from newspaper reports soon after the acquisition, we suspected it was a gift from then-President Dr Tony Tan to Queen Elizabeth II to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee that year. But we were not sure of this. We were quite excited about it, nonetheless. About three years later Nyonya Dawn Lee phoned and asked whether we were aware that the late Queen had been wearing Foundation’s brooch quite frequently and it had become the talk of the town as one of her favourite brooches. That news excited us, and we started keeping track of the number of times the Queen wore it. Since then, she has been reported by the British media to have worn the Peranakan Diamond Jubilee Brooch on no less than 30 occasions, both official and personal. The last time was in May 2022 when she opened the Elizabeth Line in London, three and a half months before she passed away in September.
CC: How did you feel then and how do you feel now, since her passing?
TK: Carol and I feel honoured that the Queen loved wearing our Bird of Paradise brooch. We are also saddened by her passing and humbled that someone as well loved and kind as she should have taken such a liking to our brooch, one that is crafted by a small company in a small nation. We have always treated every piece of our jewellery as a work of art. We hope it is one of the reasons for her wearing it. But we also feel that by wearing the brooch, the Queen also appreciated that it is a beautiful cultural heirloom of our unique Peranakan community in Southeast Asia and reminded her of her trip to Malaysia when she first encountered it in Melaka, worn by a Peranakan Chinese bride. I am sure during that trip the Queen took away with her the romance of the kerosang and its sentimental and hereditary significance to the Nyonya.
CC: In what ways did the Queen’s love for the brooch change your perspective as a designer and maker of Peranakan jewellery?
TK: It energised me and my team of craftsmen. Carol as our marketing head and her team were similarly inspired. It confirmed to us that we were on the right path. That the Queen loved the kerosang and wore it often also led to a burst of local customer interest in Peranakan jewellery. It also happened during a period when the Peranakan Museum first opened its doors in 2008. Fortuitously, there was also the tremendous success of the Channel 8 drama series The Little Nyonya the same year, which led to a huge surge of interest in all things Peranakan. Clearly, Foundation was in the right place at the right time, so to speak. We were blessed then and still are.
CC: When did you start to design and fabricate Peranakan jewellery? What is it about Peranakan jewellery that fascinates you?
TK: My interest in Peranakan jewellery was first piqued when I was introduced to it by a long-time customer of my father’s. She brought one of her vintage Peranakan necklaces to be repaired by us. I was fascinated by its exquisite detailing, and its sophistication and craft. Fortunately, one of our senior craftsmen was an expert in fabricating Peranakan jewels and I encouraged him to try his hand at the repair. It was this same customer who encouraged us to start creating Peranakan jewels by commissioning the first Peranakan jewels we designed and made in a very long time. It has become a passion because I want every new piece we design and create to be different and an improvement from the last piece. We treat it as art. It is not about producing pieces in an assembly line. This is what they do in Hong Kong and China generally. So, they can’t reproduce what we do. Also, they are not steeped in and do not understand the many subtle layers of Peranakan culture and its multi-national influences that go into the creation of Peranakan jewellery.
CC: Who was your mentor when you first started your Peranakan line of jewellery?
TK: He was the late Master Lim Foon Yan. He had worked for my father for many years until my father decided to give up producing Peranakan jewellery and to concentrate on contemporary or modern jewellery to survive the times. Luckily for Foundation, Foon Yan carried the skills with him until the day when I asked him to repair the vintage necklace. From that day we returned to where we came from – essentially Peranakan jewellery in all its splendour.
CC: Was there an objection to this change of focus from your family?
TK: There really was no objection as such. My younger brother, Johnson, and I inherited the business from our father. As the eldest child and son in the family, I now run the business while Johnson helps with the accounts. More specifically I am responsible for the direction and the creative side of the business while my wife Carol manages the marketing and sales. We were fortunate that we early on realised that we needed to differentiate ourselves from the other competing jewellers and we saw that Peranakan jewellery would be one way to achieve that.
CC: Was it challenging to revive the craftsmanship of Peranakan jewellery?
TK: It wasn’t easy. Our biggest challenge was and still is finding young Singaporeans who are passionate about the craft and who would want to live their life being very good at it. We have not found any. So, many of our craftsmen are from overseas. They are willing to give their lives to this passionate obsession.
CC: Did you think there was a ready market for such jewellery at the time?
TK: There was no ready market for Peranakan jewellery when my brother and I first took over my father’s shop in 1992. The trend then was more towards mass-produced gold jewellery. Sometimes Italian and European – looking jewellery. All the old craftsmen who used to create Peranakan jewellery had either retired or learnt how to fabricate “modern” jewellery by then.
CC: What makes fabricating Peranakan jewellery very difficult technically?
TK: You really must understand the culture first. Then understand why traditional Peranakan jewellery is fabricated the way it is. Chinese Peranakan jewellery can only be done by local Chinese. It is what I have since concluded. They understand Chinese motifs and symbols. But they also understand the Malay and Indian elements that go into them. The craftsmen in Indonesia, Hong Kong and China cannot fabricate Peranakan jewellery well partly because they are not steeped in the hybrid Peranakan culture. It’s like chicken rice in Indonesia, Hong Kong and China – they will be different from Singapore’s. Also, their way of fabrication is quite different from ours. For one thing, we do not plate or polish our gold after carving a piece. In China and Hong Kong, they might “plate” their gold to enhance its colour. But we don’t do that. We cut and then polish the actual gold. Like the old Indian and Sri Lankan master jewellers who created jewellery for their Peranakan clients. They were really skilful and good. We extensively study examples of their jewellery as a reference but we also strive to be better. How can we improve the design? If we don’t try to do better, how will we advance the craft? Improve. Improve. Improve. This is constantly on my mind to the point when my mentor who taught me the craft described me as “seow” or Hokkien for “mad”. I say I am obsessively passionate about Peranakan jewellery. I always take out fine examples of old Peranakan jewels and study them late into the night. I also take out duplicates done by my late Master Foon Yan. I try to understand how they were crafted and how we can improve on various parts and styles. We are creating art, not just any kind of jewellery. I tell this to my Foundation team members. I remind them constantly. They understand and accept what I tell them.
CC: How long does it take to design and fabricate a kerosang like the one the late Queen liked very much?
TK: I remember our master would single-handedly create a piece of jewellery. He would be an expert at designing it on paper, setting it, carving it, finishing it and then polishing it. If you go to the modern jewellery store, craftsmen are divided into groups for specific jobs. It is more an assembly line of equipment and machine. In the smaller specialised stores where more handwork is done, a piece can take as short as a few days to more than twelve months depending on the simplicity or complexity of the item being crafted. It all depends on the intricacy of the design, the availability of the stones, and the mood and skill of the craftsman.
Q: Do you see a future in Peranakan jewellery as a form of art and as a family heirloom?
A: There will always be a place for heritage, art and beauty, and very well-made jewellery. I remember clearly the day in the early 2000s when the overseas managing directors of two international luxury brands visited our shop separately and in different years and bought our earrings and pendants. They said they had never seen anything as well made and as well designed as the items they acquired. We won’t forget those two occasions. We must be doing it right.
