AngloGold Ashanti AuDITIONS Winners

WORDS Lindi Brownell Meiring PHOTOS Andrea•Gwynn

This year, AngloGold Ashanti teamed up with Design Indaba to run their annual AuDITIONS competition, aimed at uncovering the very best in gold jewellery design in South Africa.

This year’s theme, Celestial Origins, dealt with the mythical origin of gold and the story behind this precious material. Designers (of which there were 16 finalists) were given 500g of 18 carat gold along with a simple brief: create something exceptional, something that really tells the story of and speaks to the origins of gold.

On 11 August 2014, the three winners were announced at a ceremony held in Cape Town. The winners were chosen by judges Nomsa Khoza (Vice President for Global Marketing at AngloGold Ashanti), Ross Chowles (Executive Creative director and founding partner of The Jupiter Drawing Room), Marelé Moolman (workshop manager at David Bolding Goldsmith), Heidi Liebenberg (creative director and owner of Urbanative jewellery design studio), fashion designer Gavin Rajah and award-winning jewellery designer Johan Louw of Uwe Koetter Jewellers.

THIS YEAR’S WINNERS

First Place

Manufactured by Keith White Design, winner Kristen Malan’s Halo is an exquisite headpiece, made up of 495 separate gold elements and 45 moveable sections. Kristen explains, “Halo, a reverential, other worldly symbol associated with greatness, celebrates the celestial moment when gold, the most precious of all elements, came into being.”

Second Place

Also manufactured by Keith White Design, Angela Yeung’s Connect is an entirely different headpiece (albeit equally striking) to the one designed by Kristen Malan. “It manifests the mystery of gold,” says Angela of her design.

Third Place

Toya Searle is a student at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. Her bangle, entitled Age of Aquarius is inspired by gold itself, the human race and humble beginnings. The bangle, which features a beautiful crafted layer of white gold, was manufactured by Vassi Konstandakellis and Carena Janse Van Rensburg.

For more information, visit goldauditionssa.com/collections/south-africa/celestial-origins.