Siobhan Maher, Rachel Galley and Kasun Ekanayake among line-up.
The 2013 Lonmin Design Innovation Awards (DIA) winners have been announced, with six emerging and established jewellers set to see their designs realised in platinum.
In the Emerging Designers category, focused on designers with less than five years’ commercial experience, the three winners were named as Siobhan Maher of Domino Jewellery, Sarah Heulwen Lewis of Weston Beamor and Craig and Rebecca Struthers of Struthers London.
The winners in the Established Designers category were Luke Rose of Luke Rose Jewellery, Rachel Galley of Rachel Galley and Kasun Ekanayake of Kasun London. Each designer has been in business for five years or more.
The six winners each created sketches of jewellery based on the theme of ‘New Frontiers’. The competition was judges with input from jewellery trends analysis service Adorn Insight, which helped to set the theme for this year’s competition.
Their pieces will remain largely under wraps until IJL in September where they will be revealed to the public.
The New Frontiers theme is said to be inspired by movements such as Modernism, Bauhaus and Art Deco. The designers’ brief was to create an original platinum jewellery design which had an eye on the future whilst being relevant to contemporary lifestyles.
A marketing and PR campaign is also in production to help promote the designers and their winning designs. All six winners will receive a financial contribution towards the production and costs of their pieces.
