MJSA, the U.S. trade association dedicated to
professional excellence in jewellery making and design,
named the winners of its 2012 Vision Awards for
excellence in jewellery design.
The annual awards honour both design prowess
and technical skill, and recognize outstanding talent
in jewellery design. The award categories this year
included design excellence and visionary technical
solution, in addition to a variety of distinction
categories, including gold, laser, palladium, platinum,
and custom design, the latter to honour the growing
number of jewellers who are designing their own
jewellery for clients. Finally, a “Future of the Industry”
award recognizes the designs of students enrolled in
jewellery making and design programmes.
The winners will be honoured during the annual
MJSA Expo New York, scheduled for March 11 to 13 at
the Hilton New York.
The winners of the MJSA Vision Awards are: |
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Design Excellence
1st Place: Adam Neeley, Adam Neeley Fine Art
Jewelry of Laguna Beach, California, for “moonlight
and caviar” ring showcasing a 12 millimetre AAA South Sea pearl, which sits upon 2.52 ctw of pave-set
black diamonds. The ring was crafted in 14K X1 white
gold and set with 1.20 ctw of white diamonds around
the entire trim. This design was fully realized using CAD
technology to create the precise, geometric forms.
2nd Place—Gregore Morin, Gregore Joailliers of
Santa Barbara, California, for bamboo earrings with
chrysophrase, 950 platinum, Mexican fire opal, and
white and black diamonds. |
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Left : Second place in design excellence: Gregore Morin’s bamboo earrings.
Right : 1st Place in design excellence: Adam Neeley’s “moonlight and
caviar” ring.
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Visionary Technical Solution
1st Place: Edward Mirell, Edward Mirell of
Deerfield Beach, Florida, for Safari gold and black Ti
ring with black titanium and 14K gold, featuring the
co-casting of contemporary and precious metals using
new technology.
2nd Place: Julie Buckareff, JJ Buckar of Toronto,
for blue zircon diamond rope ring with 950 platinum, a 7.05 carat blue zircon, and 1,006 diamonds totaling
3.04 carats. The ring was designed around a concept
of “celestial diamond rope” and the challenge of this
design was to keep the round wire or “rope” effect
throughout. The stone could not be bezel set in a
traditional manner without destroying the round
contour. The design also calls for a seamless connection
of all parts with no visible polished metal showing
when the ring is worn. This means diamonds must be
set all the way around the thin round wire. The round
contour is then set with as many as five rows of
diamonds—impossible to lay out by hand in any
efficient manner. In addition, Buckareff also won 2nd
Place Laser Distinction for this same ring, due to the
complex laser welding of six separately cast pieces in
platinum, accomplished at various points in the
diamond setting process. She also received first place
in laser distinction for her rock crystal flower brooch.
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Gold Distinction
1st Place: Julie Lynn Romanenko, Just Jules LLC of
Scottsdale,Arizona, for gold cuff in 14K gold, cast and
hand fabricated with a 1.66 carat diamond slice,
surrounded by 0.25 carat brilliant round diamonds.
Individual sections of the bracelet were cast and then
hand-assembled.
2nd Place: Liaung Chung Yen of Henrietta, New
York, for“The Garden” brooch/pendant in 18K gold,
brown and white diamonds, pearls, and steel. The
concave discs with the cutouts, pods, and pearls are
scattered, with the linear elements linking them all
together. The pod elements are loosely attached to
create sounds when worn. |
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Left : 1st Place in platinum disctinction: Brian Sholdt’ platinum Ring with a
fern finish milled surface that allows the jeweller to finish it with hand
milgraining.
Right : Julie Buckareff won second place in visionary technical solution and
laser distinction for this blue zircon diamond rope ring in 950
platinum. |
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Palladium Distinction
1st Place: Brian Sholdt, Sholdt of Seattle, for
palladium engagement ring featuring the artist’s fern
finish in a solitaire engagement ring with a 6.5 millimetre
diamond.
2nd Place: Susan Drake, Spectrum Art & Jewelry of
Wilmington, North Carolina, for green flash ring, from
a hand-carved wax that was cast in palladium and set
with a 7.77 carat mint-green tourmaline; an oval flattop
cut, channel-set 1.23 carat hot pink spinel; and 64
ctw round, channel-set diamonds. |
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Platinum Distinction
1st Place—Brian Sholdt, Sholdt of Seattle for
platinum ring with a fern finish milled surface that
allows the jeweller to finish it with hand milgraining.
The casting is 90% platinum and 10% iridium. The
weight is 6.47 dwt. and the top diameter is 15 millimetres.
The 23 diamonds weigh a total of 0.30 carats.
2nd Place—Mark Schneider of Mark Schneider
Designs in Long Beach, California, for manta ray
brooch, featuring black onyx, 0.29 ctw emerald
cabochons, 0.108 tcw fancy yellow diamonds, and
1.753 ctw white diamonds. |
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Left : Just Jules won first place in gold distinction for this 14K yellow gold
cuff with diamond slice.
Right : Mark Schneider won first
place in custom desgin for
this black and white ring in
14K white gold using black
and white acrylic, a magnet,
and black and white
diamonds. |
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Custom Design Distinction
1st Place—Mark Schneider of Mark Schneider
Designs of Long Beach, California, for black and white
Ring in 14K white gold using black and white acrylic,
a magnet, and black and white diamonds.
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2nd Place—Cynthia Renee of Cynthia Renee
Inc. in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, for fireball ring
featuring a vivid 22.44 carat Nigerian spessartite garnet
and crafted from 18K yellow gold, 14K rose gold and
platinum; engraved in shank. The garnet is accented
by five flames of gemstones in graduated colours
representing the colour progression in a flame: fancy
intense yellow diamond, yellow sapphire, red spinel,
spessartite garnet, one 2.5 millimetre white round
diamond for accent, and two blue sapphires.
Future of the Industry
Student awards are awarded to:
1st Place: Ariel Alexandrou of University of
Kansas, for her Pods ring.
2nd Place: A tie between Youngjoo
Yoo of University of Iowa, for her laurel brooch,
and Bongsang Cho of Savannah College of Art &
Design, for her stellar brooch #9.
The judges panel for this year’s competition
included Michael Coan, Fashion Institute of
Technology; Cindy Edelstein, Jewelers Resource
Bureau; Sarah Graham, Sarah Graham Metalsmithing;
Todd Reed, Todd Reed Inc.; Marlene Richey,
Consultant; and Tina Snyder, MJSA. |
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