RAPAPORT... Twelve jewelry designers have received the Manufacturing Jewelers & Suppliers of America (MJSA) Vision Award, which this year includes a new category for colored-stone distinction.
The prizes honor outstanding creativity, craftsmanship and technological prowess, as well as originality and functionality. MJSA awards them to both professionals and students, the trade organization said. The MJSA Journal will feature the profiles of first-place winners.
The 2020 winners of the Vision Awards are:
First Place, Professional Excellence, Four Plus Years in the Business:
Sophia Hu of 6shadows in Las Vegas for her Blooming Cage, featuring interwoven thin (24-26 gauge) 18-karat gold and Argentium wires welded together with a laser, and containing diamonds and rubies. The piece also won first place in the Laser Distinction category.
Second Place, Professional Excellence, Four Plus Years in the Business:
Karin Jacobson, of Karin Jacobson Jewelry Design in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for a set of earrings implementing her signature origami style of folded metalwork, using recycled gold and oxidized sterling together with recycled diamonds and Tahitian black-pearl drops.
First and Second Place, Professional Excellence, One to Three Years in Business:
Larissa Moraes, a studio artist in Brasilia, Brazil, won first place for her necklace, which uses light citrine, ruby and morganite gems to mimic flowers in a Van Gogh painting. She also received the second-place honor for earrings featuring various shades of citrine and yellow diamonds to create the sunflowers in another Van Gogh artwork. That piece earned an honorable mention in the Colored Stone Distinction category.
First Place, Custom Design Distinction, and First Place, Colored Stone Distinction:
Frieder Lauer, owner of a jewelry design atelier in Houston, Texas, for a custom ring set with a 51-carat ametrine formed into a Starbrite cut by renowned carver John Dyer.
First Place, Responsible Practices Distinction:
Karin Jacobson, for a pair of rough Montana sapphire and diamond dangle earrings.
First Place, Future of the Industry Award (for students):
Kyra Martin, a graduating student at George Brown College in Toronto, for her 18-karat gold wire ring, with a red zircon and a padparadscha sapphire.
Second Place, Future of the Industry Award:
Ashley Pollack, a student at SUNY New Paltz and the Gemological Institute of America, for her hinged bracelet formed from a sheet of sterling with Argentium posts.
Image: The 51-carat ring by Frieder Lauer. (Manufacturing Jewelers and Suppliers of America)
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