Make Your Mark: The winners

Following the Make Your Mark Awards hosted at the Goldsmiths’ Hall last week (1 November), we take a look at the young designers who won the awards. [divider style="solid" top="20" bottom="20"] Silversmithing category winner: Annabel Hood Annabel Hood has won the chance to have her ‘London’s Leopard’ design made in Argentium Silver, she said: “I’m utterly stunned to have won the award and [I’m] really looking forward to the opportunities it is going to bring. I’m also really looking forward to making the piece.” Judge, Stewart Hersey, who will be arranging for his workshop to spin the beaker, commented: “I was very impressed with Annabel’s ‘London’s Leopard’ beaker, which stood out amongst the silversmithing entries. Annabel had thought about the use of the hallmark and has applied it to a simple but strong design. I am looking forward to helping Annabel get it made in the New Year.” [divider style="solid" top="20" bottom="20"] Jewellery category winner: Roxanne Gilbert As part of her prize, Just Castings will be working with Jewellery category winner, Roxanne Gilbert to make her ‘Five Facets Ring’ in 18ct yellow gold. “Thanks so much for my award. I absolutely love it.” she said. “It’s a real incentive having these kinds of competitions to work towards - especially for someone like me who hasn’t been able to complete a degree as there aren’t so many opportunities available. I found the whole event really helpful and made some brilliant contacts. I’m really excited about making it in gold.” Leo Onofriou from Just Castings, who was on the Judging Panel, said: “I was delighted to be invited to be on the Make Your Mark Awards judging panel. Roxanne met all the criteria and deserved to win the Jewellery category. We are looking forward to producing her winning piece in 18ct yellow gold.” [divider style="solid" top="20" bottom="20"] Joint second prize: Yanmi Lui The judges said they were “excited” about the creative potential of joint second prize winner, Yanmi Lui’s design concept, ‘The Simplicity of Braille’, which proposed adding a braille version of the Millesimal Fineness mark to a hallmarked item. She was awarded a mentorship with Richard Fox and £125 voucher from Cooksongold. “We all agreed that although the proposed size of the braille mark inside a ring shank was too small, the idea of using braille in a more tactile piece such as flatware could be worth developing,” explained Grant Macdonald, a member of the judging panel. “This does not necessarily mean just braille lettering down a table fork, it’s more about the idea of incorporating braille into patterns that could be discovered by the user - ensuring that the visually impaired experience heightened enjoyment of the wonderful tactility of silver.” [divider style="solid" top="20" bottom="20"] Joint second prize: Kate Hainge’s design for a ‘Magnifying Ring’ was also praised by the judges for its creativity and she was awarded a mentorship with Stephen Webster and £125 of Argentium Silver to make her piece. Judge, Elizabeth Hunt from Argentium Silver International said: “We are delighted to be able to support the two talented students selected to receive their choice of Argentium silver material. We were very impressed by the diversity of designs present and look forward to seeing the competition grow over the coming years.” [divider style="solid" top="20" bottom="20"] Commended: Max Danger for ‘The Robot and the Unlucky Stone’ Rebecca Doe for her design, ‘Marked’ Adriana Klimentjevaite for her design, ‘The Leopard’s Brooch’ [divider style="solid" top="20" bottom="20"] Annabel and Roxanne each won £350 from the Goldsmiths’ Company Assay Office and all of the winners will receive full hallmarking registration and hallmarking credit, along with an exclusive ‘behind the scenes’ tour of the Goldsmiths’ Company Assay Office with Dave Merry, head of training, education and trading standards liaison at the assay office. Dr Robert Organ, deputy warden of the Goldsmiths’ Company Assay Office, said: “This is the first time that we have run the Make Your Mark Awards and I was delighted that we had such a large number of entries demonstrating a wide range of creativity and approaches to tackling the brief. It gave the judges some headaches in trying to select the winners. “We hope to build on this next year and will be particularly keen to see more entrants from Silversmiths who were not quite as well represented as Jewellery designers.”