Winners of the Make Your Mark Awards Announced

The Reception and Awards Exhibition was buzzing with excitement as students, graduates and tutors mingled with well-known industry personalities and members of the Goldsmiths’ Company.

Keynote Speaker, Richard Fox, opened the event, talking about the Goldsmiths’ Company and its history of supporting the industry and the challenges faced by newcomers.

Commenting on the Awards, he said, “It always fascinates me to see such enthusiasm from our young designers and makers. There seems to be a thirst for knowledge.  It is wonderful to see so many people who want to make a career in our industry, not the easiest, but probably one of the most rewarding. From my own perspective, whenever I produce a design for a client, I feel honoured that they wish to commission my work and a sense of achievement that they actually like what I do.”

Richard was followed by Grant Macdonald who spoke on behalf of the Judging Panel, “It has been a difficult task for us to come to a unanimous decision on tonight's winners. We were all very impressed by the quality, ingenuity and the thought process that has gone into these entries. The Awards were about incorporating a series of small punch marks that we normally hide inside or underneath a piece, making them part of the design, out in the open, and looking good. Well you did it.”

Grant had his first piece of silver with him - a spoon - made when he was 14 years old and talked about the hallmark and how it gives work provenance and integrity, “The hallmark is a way for us as Silversmiths and Jewellers to sign our work, just like an artist signing off a portrait,” he explained.

Talking about the Company’s 700 year history he advised designers and makers to “Use it or Lose it! You are its future. We should all work to promote hallmarking and that in part, means finding ways of getting people to look out for hallmarks. This competition has really done that.”

The winners of the Make Your Mark Awards were announced by Grant and presented with their Awards by Richard: 

Silversmithing Category Winner:
Annabel Hood for her design, ‘London’s Leopard’

Jewellery Category Winner:
Roxanne Gilbert for the ‘Five Facets Ring’

Joint Second Prize:
Kate Hainge for her design, ‘Magnifying Ring’
Yanmi Lui for her design, ‘The Simplicity of Braille’

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’

As well as trophies produced and engraved by Creative Awards, the winners received a host of coveted prizes from Stephen Webster, Stewart Hersey, Richard Fox, Just Castings, Retail Jeweller, Argentium Silver International, Cooksongold, HS Walsh, and the Goldsmiths’ Company Assay Office.

Silversmithing Category winner, Annabel Hood, was excited to win the chance to have her design made in Argentium Silver. “I’m utterly stunned to have won the Award and 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.”

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 was on the Judging Panel: “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.”

The Judges 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, and awarded her 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,” explains Grant Macdonald. “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.”

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.”

Annabel and Roxanne each win £350 from the Goldsmiths’ Company Assay Office and all 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.

“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,” said Dr Robert Organ, Deputy Warden of the Goldsmiths’ Company Assay Office. “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.”

“One of the most interesting things we found was that the Hereford College of Art incorporated the competition into its curriculum as a Live Project for its students, two of whom won prizes,” he continued. “This was an unexpected, but very welcome and novel approach, which we would encourage in future years. I am very proud of all of our staff, judges, prize sponsors and speakers who took part and contributed to making the inaugural Make Your Mark Awards such a huge success.” 

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