He recalls the environment being highly competitive as the young apprentices would all compete to win the master's favor.

Chan stood out from the competition as he was a keen learner who quickly improved his skills. When some other apprentices "became jealous and turned against him", he left the studio to open his own practice. His working on jade had less margin for error as the material was prohibitively expensive. Consequently, people working with jade had to carefully study it and be precise in their actions.

As Chan improved his understanding of precious stones, he searched for new tools and found drills used by dentists rather handy. But there was a catch — such tools could easily cause the precious stone to crack.

To address the issue, he modified the equipment and carried out the carving process in water to disperse the heat and alleviate the tension created. This resulted in his first major breakthrough.

Using his new equipment and technique, which involved cameos and intaglios, he created Now and Always, a pendant featuring a facial image inspired by the goddesses of Horae in an aquamarine gemstone. The technique was invented as the Wallace Cut in 1987.