At the third and final judging round of The Artisan Awards 2021, there was fierce competition among the finalists who vied for the top three slots. The results will be out shortly.
The fourth edition of Artisan Awards 2021, the country’s prestigious jewellery design competition, constituted by the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council of India (GJEPC), completed the third and final round of judging finished pieces. The Artisan Awards celebrate the highest levels of art, creativity & innovation by honoring the best talent in jewellery design and elevating designers to their rightful status of artists.
Despite the lockdowns the world over, a total of 586 entries were received from national and international participants from Japan, USA, Taiwan, Russia, Egypt, Abu Dhabi, and Australia.
The main theme for the 2021 edition is Reinventing Vintage. This theme is further subdivided into three categories: Victorian, Temple and Japanesque jewellery. The Artisan Awards hope to celebrate the revival of these eternal design eras and will chronicle the new design epoch thrust upon us by the pandemic.
The sub-theme Victorian Jewellery takes its name from the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901), and focuses on The Romantic Period of this reign (1837-1860).
The second theme, Temple Jewellery, originated in South India, during the Chola dynasty’s reign. These ornaments were originally created to adorn deities and idols in the temples of the South.
Finally, Japanesque Jewellery focuses on Shakudo, a gold content alloy that was used to create ornamental bits for katana, or swords. Centuries later, its use was expanded to include lifestyle items like vases, boxes and jewellery.
Colin Shah, Chairman, GJEPC, noted, “Design will be the biggest influencing factor for India’s dream of achieving synonymity with high-end jewellery. The Artisan Award is fast becoming a coveted trophy for not just designers in India, but the world over. We want to encourage more and more designers from all over the world to participate in the Awards and push the boundaries of creativity.”
Milan Chokshi, Convener- Promotions & Marketing, GJEPC, “The competition has been getting tougher and better with each passing year. Our aim for instituting Artisan is twofold – to offer a platform to showcase their talent and provide an opportunity to designers to tie-up with top manufacturers of India to create masterpieces that will catapult them to prominence on the global jewellery industry map.”
Nisha Jhangiani, curator of Artisan Awards, commented, “This was one of the tougher themes I had conceptualised for Artisan 2021. Given the lockdown enforcements, we were all concerned with the feasibility of adapting the entire process to a digital model; putting together a versatile group of jurors; the logistics of manufacturing the jewels; and how best we could present them digitally for the final round. The strong line-up of shortlisted pieces just goes to show how we all can come together digitally to make miracles happen!”
The first judging round was a technical assessment of all the entries, which was followed by a second jury meet to shortlist 30 final sketches, 10 in each of the three sub-categories.
The eminent jury for the final round included Fashion Designer James Ferreira, Jewellery Influencer Katerina Perez, Christian Louboutin Country Head – India Anjali Gaekwar, The Rose Group of Companies Managing Director Biren Vaidya, The Adventurine Founder Marion Fasel, and Ensemble Owner and CEO Tina Tahiliani Parikh.
GJEPC will shortly announce the dates of the Artisan Awards 2021 finale.