Hailstones Designs boosted by LUX Global Excellence Award

To say the win has served as a confidence booster is an understatement. A former local government officer with no formal training in jewellery making, Hailstone has never really considered herself one of 'the designer gang'.

The success of her glass design business, set up in 2013, seems to have come as a bit of a surprise to her though she has always been artistic, she says, as well as incredibly passionate and more and more comfortable with trying out new ideas.

She was nominated for the LUX award in mid 2017 at a time when she was trying to decide what she should do with her business. She took a call from the organisers asking her for permission to progress her nomination further because they liked her work.

"I was delighted because I was not expecting it at all. And I certainly didn't expect to win," she tells Benchpeg.

Hailstone's award-winning designs proving popular with clients and peers

She didn't expect to win because the LUX Global Excellence Award process is a long and testing one, involving external and in house research, case files, website voting and industry panel voting, over a period of several months.

Being self-taught, using a kiln her husband bought her and feeling herself blessed simply to be pursuing her passion, she had never held lofty ambitions or craved professional recognition though had started the ball rolling on a rebranding exercise which was in full swing when she received the news she had won.

Hailstone's Midnight Sky Pendant and Earrings alongside new Moonlight Sails and Sails in the Sunset glass art

"I was amazed and delighted. It was wonderful because it was recognition, affirmation from the industry," she says.

"I felt it gave me more credibility and it certainly gave me the confidence to develop my artistic flair - both my grandfather and father were artistic so it was always there but this recognition allowed me to develop that flair."

One of her new ideas was a mosaic glass tile, featuring sails and boats, water, the moon and sun using  Dichroic glass, which possesses a transmitted colour and a completely different reflective colour.

"I was working on it in my workshop when a customer came in and said she loved it and could she buy it. So I started another one and that also sold immediately."

They have proved so popular that she has added art to her official repertoire of designs which up to then, had comprised exclusively jewellery, all of it handmade and unique and signed, fashioned from gold, silver, diamonds and other precious stones and of course glass.

Commenting on the awards, Sophie Milner, Awards Co-ordinator said: “These awards are a stamp of excellence, and  all our award winners are part  of an exclusive and illustrious group, comprising of some of the most influential names in the luxury markets. It is therefore my honour to be able to wish them congratulations on this success - here’s to a great future.”

To see her full range and the inspiration behind her work, see www.hailstonesdesign.com