​​Janci Bisschoff shines above South Africa’s young talented jewellery designers. Bisschoff, a second year student studying jewellery design at the University of Johannesburg (UJ), scooped the Thuthuka Development Programme 2012 People’s Choice Award, and the 2012 Thuthuka Jewellery Development Programme Innovation during a Thuthuka Jewellery Exhibition at UJ.​​

The exhibition, which took place at UJ’s Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture (FADA) on Wednesday, 17 October 2012, brings together a community of jewellery artists and students to compete against each other. This year’s theme, Breaking Patterns, tasked the entrants with analysing familiar patterns of any cultural or personal items, deconstructing them in the simplest forms, and lastly reconstructing a totally new and different pattern. This was a test of innovation for the students to form original jewellery pieces from existing patterns.

“While institutions such as UJ are traditionally stronger in training on technique and have an internationally recognised programme, student attending the less well-resourced community facilities have shown significant design talent through their work that is on a par with their University counterparts. This sort of competition bridges a gap that allows both the students and public to be exposed to this. This sort of cross pollination is critical to development of a sector,” said Carola Ross, Founder and Executive Director: Thuthuka

Bisschoff was delighted about the win, and this is what she had to say: “I am grateful about the opportunity Thuthuka has given me and other students as well. The programme pushed my creativity to its limits and has given me so much exposure.”