Sowon Joo is a young Korean artist that makes complex yet clean wire crochet art jewelry. She has been working in metalsmith areas including jewelry, silverware and sculpture for over 20 years. Today she runs Sowon Joo Studio in Korea and works with many galleries all over the world.Sowon Joo uses her craft to tell fairy tales for grown-ups, offering our dreary modern society a warmer and more meaningful atmosphere.

Rites of passage and the phenomena surrounding them have constantly intrigued and inspired Sowon Joo as an artist. Sowon Joo defines her wire work method as weaving. Metal weaving process requires a tremendous amount of time and effort as well as a high level of caution and sensitivity. Sowon Joo pour her thoughts, memories and spirit during the process of weaving, and the fragile and delicate nature of weaving with silver wire represents the vulnerability and fragility of life, especially in the early stages, which demands our care and protection.

Sowon Joo focuses her attentions on the rites of passage that all living creatures experience: birth, death, and the growth and development milestones that happen between them. She uses nature to describe these moments metaphorically; for her, the natural world is not something to enjoy and utilize, but something to learn about and respect. Through her works, Joo hopes to teach us that by observing nature’s order and harmony, we can find principles of living and balance within society. Her pieces are not meant to stand on their own; they only become complete artworks through harmony and balance with human bodies.