Our Story

Doron Chic - A Little Story

By Qi Zhang, in my own words

 “In my studio, color usually arrives before I do.”

Qi Zhang here — painter, oil-painting teacher at university, and, between canvases and students, the maker of a small glowing thing called Doron Chic.

My art training happened at the Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts in Ukraine, where I earned my master’s degree in oil painting. That city stayed in me - its museums, its winter light, its serious beauty, the way a corridor can smell of old wood and turpentine. For twenty years now, paint has been my first language. Jewelry is the second one. A quieter language. One you can wear on a Tuesday, or to a dinner where you want a little secret sparkle and no one quite knows why.

How It Started
Pearls have always had a soft spot in my heart. They are like frozen moonlight - soft, patient, a little mysterious, and never in a hurry to impress anyone. Crystal catches light the way a good painting catches a mood: suddenly, and then it won’t let go. One day a simple thought arrived: why not let these materials carry the same feeling as my canvases? Not a copy of a painting. More like a sketch that escaped the studio, put on a small coat, and decided to live on a necklace.

"Museums teach me patience. Also, how to stand still for a long time.”

The Slavic Thread
Slavic art is in the bones of Doron Chic. Its rhythm feels like a folk song you don’t need to translate to understand - a little melancholic, a little celebratory, often both in the same breath. Warm deep colors, quiet ceremony, patterns that seem simple until you look closely and find a whole conversation hiding there. The past is not pasted onto a chain here. It passes through my hand, slowly, and comes out as something new: a necklace, a bracelet, a small bright thing with soul. Pearls give it softness. Crystal gives it a glint. Together they feel like a candle in a window - not loud, but warm, and somehow memorable.

Every week, two of my graduate students and I sit down together. Sketches spread out, stones get moved around, tea gets poured, and proportion gets argued about gently. It’s a nice little ritual — half classroom, half kitchen table, half workshop. (Yes, three halves. Artists are not good at math.) From this we design two or three new necklaces and bracelets, then release them in our Shopify store at doronchic.com. Each piece is a small collaboration: my painter’s eye, their fresh courage, and the materials doing their quiet part. Slow work, made visible in small batches.

These pieces are meant to be tiny paintings you can wear — not loud, but warm. Not museum pieces, but small companions. My hope is that you’ll feel the Slavic spirit in them: the glow, the patience, the quiet sparkle, the sense that something was made by hand and with time. And my even bigger hope is that you’ll love them. They were made with a painter’s eye, a teacher’s stubbornness, and two students who keep me honest.

Welcome to Doron Chic. - Qi Zhang