Jewellery That Listens
Turning what you can't say into something you can wear.
I'm Ada, founder of Da Things.
I started as a GIA diamond grader, then worked as personal assistant to an Indian high-jewellery merchant and as a high-end diamond wholesale representative. Eight years to learn how to identify a diamond.
Twelve years of Da Things taught me something else:
How to identify what a person means but cannot say.
A gentleman came to me for a pendant.
He and his wife were both listed-company auditors. During the pandemic he missed the birth of his daughter. He never said the word "guilt" to me — but I heard it.
I thought of rugby players linking arms before a match. A family of three. One team.
What we made was a pendant that can be worn as three separate pieces, or joined into one.
His wife cried when she opened it. When he told me, my first thought was that I'd got it wrong. I hadn't — she cried because she finally felt how much that absence had weighed on him, and how much she mattered.
That was when I understood: I don't make custom jewellery. I translate.
From grading diamonds to grading what matters
1Identify
Eight years of grading trained the eye — stones, certificates, structure, metal. And people. What you're trying to say with a gift, underneath the words you have for it.
2Listen
Listening came before the training. Friends tend to find me at their lowest, so I learned to hear the part that goes unsaid — the apology, the love, the milestone you're marking but haven't named.
3Translate
Then it becomes matter you can wear for life. Which stone, which metal, which finish, which structure — every decision is part of translating your story.
These hands have done the work — and taught it.
I'm not a designer who only draws. Casting, hammering, polishing, stone setting — I did all of it at the bench for years, and I taught it: students starting from a lump of silver and walking out with their first ring.
I no longer run workshops. But because I've done the work, I know what a piece goes through in the workshop — where you can save, and where you must never cut corners.
Manufacturers and brands still bring me in for pre-shipment inspection. Trade services →
Student-made silver rings — from a lump of metal to something worn. Who I most want to work with
- Women moving through a turning point — divorce, recovery, rebirth, inheritance — who want a piece that holds their own conviction
- People with an apology, a thank-you or a promise they can't put into words
- Anyone who believes jewellery carries a story, not just an outfit
At the top of the luxury market, jewellery is often just money changing form. But jewellery has always been something else: a vessel for belief, a promise, a record made solid.
If you want to mark a moment that matters, I'm here.
📍 Hong Kong · Studio by appointment