RM - please accept my apology for a delayed response, due to bad local weather disasters I have been without cable internet access for the past 10 days.

Chang Shana might be the person best to interview, if you are able to contact such a famous old person. She was an associate of Qian Meihua, and like Meihua, was also inspired by Lin Huiyin in the revival of Chinese arts and crafts.

I suspect the current staff at the Beijing Enamel Factory are too young to have experienced the revival of cloisonne during the 1950s and how the factory navigated the changing fashion scene after the Cultural Revolution ended and Deng Xiaopeng's economic reforms.

Zhang Tonglu and his wife were important factory staff during these 1950s-80s years, however, and if he is allowing interviews he might be able to provide insight as to which old artisans were making elaborate beads such as in this necklace, and why - were they for sale to rich Chinese ladies in Hong Kong, perhaps?

The second picture, of a simpler necklace design that still displays the design work of an older more skilled wirework craftsman, was purchased by a U.S. woman on a China tour in 1979.

http://www.chinapictorial.com.cn/en/features/txt/2014-11/04/content_649326.htm