Weston Beamor announces finalists of annual student award

The three designers are now in with a chance of winning the design competition staged annually by the Birmingham casting house, Weston Beamor, in conjunction with the School of Jewellery, Birmingham City University (BCU).

The winner of the competition will be announced on Tuesday February 7, 2012 at 2.30 in on the Weston Beamor stand at The Jewellery Show, Birmingham.

The finalists, along with fellow students on the HND Jewellery and Silversmithing Course, will gather with university staff and directors of Weston Beamor, to discover who has won the first prize of £500 and the opportunity to have a week of work experience within the firm. The student who comes second will receive £250 and the person in third place £150.

The brief for this year’s competition was to design a commercial piece of jewellery with a particular target audience of the entrant’s choice in mind. To show the thinking behind their entries students were required to submit not only their final design solutions, which had to be created using Matrix CAD software, but also their market research, mood boards, concept development and an appropriate advertisement.

The competition was judged by Naomi Newton Sherlock, head of new product development at Weston Beamor’s sister company, Domino; Andrew Morton, group managing director and Ed Hole, bespoke CAD/RP coordinator at Weston Beamor.

Hole commented: “We were looking for innovative thinking within the design process combined with a professional level of presentation and awareness of commercial issues. All three finalists demonstrated these qualities in spades.”

The three short-listed concepts were very different with Kimber creating Lumiere pendant in 18ct rose gold and diamonds on a long chain; Newman producing a Prima ring, earring and pendant collection in 18ct white gold with diamond accents and a rose quartz cabochon feature stone and Symes creating miniature, vintage-style tea cup rings in 9ct gold and coloured stones inspired by The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party.

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