The Voice (Francistown)
Moses Maruping
22 April 2008
Francistown — As part of its diamond beneficiation programme, Diamond Trading Company (DTC) Botswana is calling on all designers to enter the company's inaugural Shining Light Diamond Design Awards competition.
The awards which started in South Africa in 1996 for the first time this year bring both Botswana and Namibia on board.
DTC Marketing Manager-Southern Africa, Thoko Modisakeng said since it is difficult for jewellery designers to get recognition in their respective fields, the awards seek to unearth talent in the three countries.
This year's awards she said are held under the theme "Fingerprints of your journey" where an international collection of diamond jewellery will be created to reflect this theme.
She said the diamond studded awards' objective is to provide support for the Namibian and Botswana jewellery industry by helping to develop technical and design skills of designers as well as a culture for jewellery design.
She said their vision is to show the world the wealth of design that exists in Botswana by creating a design platform, through which the creative artistry in this country can be showcased suing nature's most remarkable and finest creation: the diamond.
Modisakeng said DTC Botswana Shining Light Awards therefore unites this heritage to create an internationally appealing and unique collection of diamond jewellery.
'This competition is run over two years and is open to all individuals who are permanently residing in Botswana and must be jewelers in retail, wholesale or manufacturing; jewellery designers as well as persons actively involved or interested in the design and manufacturing of jewellery, including fashion design, textile design and the arts."
Modisakeng noted that by entering the awards, entrants stand to benefit immensely as the competition provides a local and international platform for an individual's work.
Furthermore she added that the awards will provide individuals with an opportunity to increase their design and manufacturing skills as well as broadening their knowledge within the jewellery industry.
"I think it is worth to note that DTC shall give educational grants to the value of P8 000 each to two educational institutions as well as P20 000 to the overall winner."
She said throughout the diamond jewellery design competition, DTC will run design workshops which will be held on a biennial basis in all the three countries.
"It is at these workshops that designers from all facets of the industry entering the competition will be able to network freely and benefit from the input provided by technical jewellery experts and guest speakers."
Among these speakers, Modisakeng said will be world-renowned diamond jewellery designer, Reema Pachachi- a visiting professor at the Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design as well as former Creative Director at De Beers Diamond Jewelers- who will be leading the workshops as Head Design Director.
She noted that the theme of the Shining Light Awards 2008 competition calls for entrants to choose an important moment in their lives, something life changing which they will be able to use as their inspiration in the development of their piece.
"There is no doubt that Africa has forever been the inspiration of artists and poets alike, but it is the continent's shining light, the diamond, that continues to illuminate, captivate and arouse hence endeavours such as the DTC sponsored Shining Light Awards, that we are all able to demonstrate to the rest of the world that working together towards a shared set of values enables us to go forward, untied and stronger."
She said the overall winners from all the three countries will then converge in South Africa for a huge celebration in 2009 before their timeless pieces travel the world where they will garner global publicity giving those who created them an opportunity to get permanent employment in sme of the world's leading diamond jewellery designers.
"The more these pieces travel the more publicity each country gets. For instance the publicity value which South Africa got through this competition in 2001 was about R1.9 million and this has now grown to R46.5 million this year. You can just see the amount of value these awards can bring to Botswana in terms of tourism." Giving a brief about the competition, Visiting Jewellery Professor at the Saint Martins School of Art and Design, Reema Pachachi encouraged will-be entrants to choose an important, possibly even life changing event or moment in their lives noting that it could either be sad or joyful.
She said for a designer to come up with a brilliant piece of work they will have to go through all the five steps of design such including inspiration, investigation, identification, development and realization.
"One thing designers need to bear in mind is that diamonds gather light like no other material on earth and this should consider how they can use this unique quality to enhance their designs."
Pachachi cautioned designers saying since the pieces will need to be sponsored, they should keep to accessible diamonds such as all grades of white.
"Shapes of diamonds can be varied but if you are using multiples of small diamonds, it is probably best to keep to round brilliants and princess cuts. The size of the diamonds used will depend on the design but if they are too big, the piece will be harder to sponsor because of the cost."
For more information on the competition go to www.shininglightawards.co.za ...
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