The Accidental Artist

16 years, 18 collections and more than 300 masterpieces ago, Wynn Wynn Ong was the last person on earth to think she’d ever become a designer. Shauna Popple Williams talks to the prolific artist about redefining her boundaries

- Shauna Popple Williams

In the ’80s, Wynn Wynn Ong was a fashion forward woman who was strapped for choice when it came to jewellery. Her family were all avid collectors of such, but for the life of her, Ong could not find the bold statement pieces her heart so desired to match her inclination for donning stark, asymmetric clothing.

Instead, to her dismay, the designs du jour were traditional matching sets. “You know,” Ong says, “those tiny little chains, a solitaire, a single strand, and studs.” Frustrated, she ended up making her own. This was, essentially, the awakening of Ong’s artist within, an extension of herself that, unbeknownst to her at the time, would later be celebrated.

Born of her insatiable appetite to learn, the educator (she taught literature for almost a decade) found herself a student once more. Pushing the envelope on her own self-perceived boundaries, she dabbled in other crafts such as goldsmithing, wood carving and staining, lostwax casting, as well as miniature painting to put her untapped talents to the test.

Expressing herself in more ways than one, she went on to create intricate heirloom jewellery and accessories, followed by minaudières, then ornamental objets d’art along with exquisitely embellished pieces such as cabinets and trays for the home. Most recently, she tried her hand at fabulous couture featuring jaw-dropping jewellery elements.