2014 New Silk Road Model Contest held in Beijing

Crystal-clear vision of jewelry designers

One example is Swarovski's participation in the 2013 Beijing Design Week, where Chinese and international designers were invited to create innovative designs with Swarovski crystal, using the theme of exploring memory in the digital age.

At the exhibition, Chinese designer Liu Feng created an installation known as Milky Way, which uses a mountain of crystals to represent refracted memory in the digital age. "It shows the function of the crystal as a lens if you light it from different angles," Swarovski says.

Beijing-based furniture designer Song Tao embedded crystals in wood and bamboo in a piece known as The Story of Time, which aims to reflect the memory of birth, growth and death.

In April this year, Swarovski also presented a new installation to coincide with Art Basel in Hong Kong.

Entitled Prologue, it is a giant 4-meter outdoor sculpture, holding more than 8,000 Swarovski crystals, by London-based design duo Patrik Fredrikson and Ian Stallard. The installation plays with natural light by transforming and transmuting its environment throughout the day.