Born in China and based in Edinburgh, Scotland, Wanshu Li is largely inspired by the brilliant colors and sensuous movements of sea creatures like jellyfish and sea anemones. With her jewelry, she aims to create a multisensory wearing experience that involves visual enjoyment, tactility, and sound. She designs her exotic jewels to appeal to the hand and ear as well as the eye; the glass beads mounted on their moving nylon wires are irresistibly tempting to touch, and all the pieces create subtle sounds as they move with the body. Li’s fascination with dance culture, laser light shows, and stage performances inspired her to add a further visual dimension to her practice: she experiments with ultraviolet-reactive nylon and fluorescent paints, which combine to produce a remarkable intensity of color when the jewelry is lit with UV light.
