About

To jewelry artist Vanessa Leu, true beauty cannot be achieved without inward beauty. She says, “An artist knows that the most valuable part of her work comes from what she’s learned in life. Outward aesthetics come naturally to the devoted artist. An artist without deeper understandings is an empty artist.”

Vanessa Leu is an unconventional jewelry artist, whose works inspired by her love for nature, people, art, literature, music, and an acute understanding of her heritage. Born in the Republic of China, Taiwan, she later immigrated to the United States. Her designs draw inspiration from contemporary art and literature, as well as a keen knowledge of the arts and philosophy of her heritage, including the works of philosophers such as Lao Tzu, and decades of Zen practice.

As a compassionate individual, Vanessa’s journey to achieve both inward and outward beauty is in all events of her life. As a young woman, she lived in the deep Taiwanese mountains to help Taiwanese Aborigines improve their poor living conditions. As a journalist, her writing was a tool to increase awareness of issues plaguing society as well as an art form to share beauty. Today, with Wishgiving, she shares her appreciation for beauty and encourages compassion in our daily lives. Vanessa chooses to work with gemstones to inspire an inward as well as outward beauty. Each stone has a meaning, and each piece is meant to encourage the wearer to use thoughtfulness in delivering blessings to themselves and to their loved ones.

Vanessa believes that beauty is a universal language that every person understands. She says, “There is a certain timeless function of jewelry, that is meant to enhance a woman’s beauty regardless of location, time, or culture”. Her jewelry line, Wishgiving, marries authentic Eastern aesthetics with her eye for modernism, creating timeless, elegant, spiritual pieces appropriate for today’s society.

Nurtured by their mother’s love and appreciation for art, Vanessa’s daughter, Vania and son, Alvin naturally followed in her footsteps to spread beauty and blessings. Growing up in an art-filled household, the two siblings’ strong affinity to art was shown in their commitments to piano, violin, literature and graphic design. The two share their mother’s sincerity to build a business that shares their appreciation for art and their compassion for people and the world they live in. After studying at the University of California at Berkeley, Vania joined Vanessa in starting Wishgiving. Alvin, deciding to devote his time and efforts in building a thoughtful, compassionate business, later joined his mother and sister in founding Wishgiving.

Let's create beautiful and blessings -- the warmest gift you can give...

We believe in creating beauty and blessings for the world. It is our sincere hope that you will join us in promoting aesthetic, spiritual, and physical restorations of people and our earth. Our company is named Wishgiving to start a business that imparts good wishes to others. Truly the gift that keeps giving, each piece is designed to deliver deep blessings to the wearer. A percentage of profits from each purchase will be donated to noble causes.

We take extensive efforts to ensure that our company is run with high ethical standards that reduce  impact on our environment.  Some examples of how we run an eco-friendly company include:

• Our jewelry boxes are either made from 100% recycled materials, or are capable of being reused.
• Shipping boxes are made from post-consumer material to reduce impact.
• Scrap metals are recycled for future use to incorporate into beautiful jewelry.
• All of our pearl jewelry are created with genuine cultured freshwater pearls, which have lower impact on the environment than faux pearls.
• Our pure fine silver pendants are made from recycled silver from film processing.