Golden touch: Welding new life into jewelry

In 2006, Yang was asked to enlarge a diamond ring valued at about 650,000 yuan.

"It was so difficult to roll the ring to a larger size because of the way the diamond was set. If the craftswoman couldn't do it carefully, the diamond would break," Yang said.

Yang said she enlarged the ring a little bit everyday for about two weeks. After that process, she put it in water to cool it down, just to keep the diamond fastened. The last step was to polish the ring to make it sparkle and shine again.

Since then, Yang has worked with more materials, including jade and pearl. "It has been part of my life and I think I will never be separated from it," Yang said, referring to her jewelry work.

With the support of the Debai Group, Yang established her studio in 2012 and began to train more people who aspired to learn her skills.

"It was a long process of learning and Yang always taught trainees to buckle down to get the points," said Jia Baolu, a trainee at Yang's studio.

Jia said Yang tried to encourage more trainees to learn three-dimensional design to keep pace with the high-demand.

So far, there are three full-time trainees at Yang's workshop. In the near future, Yang said she hopes more young people will join her team and learn to make nice pieces as a way to pass down skilled Chinese crafts.