New designers’ time to shine
Awards lay on the glitz to encourage budding jewellery creators — and whet buyer appetites
WE’VE been to political soirées with less security, but when there’s more than R5-million worth of jewellery on display, who can blame the organisers for being a tad uptight?
The Shining Light Awards, which recognise aspiring jewellers, made their way to South Africa as a joint Southern Africa competition for the first time on Wednesday night. In previous years, the participating countries have held regional awards.
The event took place at Rosebank’s Circa Gallery and attracted mostly business types (read stakeholders) and diamond lovers, who ogled the pieces on display.
Seen nibbling on the hors d’oeuvres , which included quail eggs, prawn skewers and kudu carpaccio, were the likes of Rhythm City actor Dalton Ashikoto; trend analyst Dion Chang; and make-up artist Nthato Mashishi.
Provided by De Beers, the competition sponsors, the diamonds used in the jewellery pieces certainly sparkled, though the event itself lost some of its sheen.
The ceremony went on for about an hour longer than necessary with the evening’s gorgeous emcee Sindy Mabe doing her best to hold together a programme that included a 3D display of the finalists’ pieces.
Among the speakers were the CEO of the De Beers Group, Philippe Mellier, who had flown in from France for the occasion.
Other guests included Namibian mines and energy minister Obed Kandjoze and Botswana’s Diamond Hub coordinator, Jacob Thamage .
After Lilja Pesanka Hastie from the Tshwane University of Technology was crowned the overall winner, most of the guests slipped out to find their cars, all parked a few blocks away as the whole road around the gallery had been cordoned off to protect the jewels.
The awards will be held next in Namibia.