Lonmin design award winners announced at IJL
Designer Fei Liu receives a Lonmin Design Innovation award, September 2011
LONDON, September 6, 2011 – Lonmin announced nine winners of its 2011 Design Innovation awards in platinum, combining relative newcomers with more established designers.
The winners were announced at an event at the Saatchi Gallery in central London on the sidelines of the IJL trade show (4-7 September 2011).
One of the main objectives of The Lonmin Design Innovation Award is to push the boundaries of design in platinum.
The competition, now in its ninth year, is divided into two categories. “Emerging Designers” recognises designers with less than five years’ commercial experience, and “Established Designers” focuses on those who have been in the business for more than five years.
EMERGING DESIGNER CATEGORY
Leyla Abdollahi
Leyla has combined platinum with Tahitian pearls, white diamonds and blue sapphires to create a luxurious ring with a flowing organic shape. The design interprets her interest in ancient mythology and symbolism with a modern and striking twist.
Alexander Davis
Alexander designed and made his first fine jewellery collection in 2007 and often draws inspiration from his background in science and engineering. Quarks are as group of particles created in the first moments after the Big Bang and Alexander’s platinum brooch represents the bold shapes of the particles exploding from the centre.
Sarah Ho
Sarah’s design incorporates three elements – the lotus flower, origami and the philosophy of having fun with fine jewellery! Her platinum petals are pave set with white diamonds, delicately coloured pink sapphires and a beautiful pink pearl.
Anthony Roussel
Anthony combined the strength of platinum with the fragility of birch wood to design his beautiful sculptural piece of wrist-wear. Anthony’s inspirations often come from engineering and architecture as he enjoys problem solving.
Laura Strand
Laura’s pendant incorporates an intricate scrolling design and watch dial features, framing a striking two layered spinning pattern, to create a hypnotic optical illusion. Laura drew her inspiration from antique time pieces and op art.
ESTABLISHED DESIGNER CATEGORY
Zoe Harding
Zoe’s bold platinum cocktail ring has a futuristic feel referencing distant stars and galaxies and the Neptunea gastropod shell. A sizeable yet relatively lightweight framework, pave set on the outer edge with diamonds, sweeps and curves into a perfect spiral.
Fei Liu
The chance to rework a piece of Chinese history into a contemporary setting inspired Fei’s design. His earrings feature a fine lattice of platinum forming a structure onto which antique kingfisher hairpins are positioned. Diamonds and turquoises highlight the vivid colour of the kingfisher feathers.
Anna Loucah
Anna’s piece is an elegant statement ring made of highly polished platinum, 18ct rose gold and white diamonds. The metal used is 100 percent recycled in association with Harmony Metals at Hoover and Strong.
