The University of Johannesburg (UJ)’s Department of Jewellery Design and Manufacture in the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture (FADA), shone bright at the 2024 Shining Light Awards, winning the prestigious Institutional Award. The De Beers Shining Light Awards is a jewellery design competition dedicated to empowering the next generation of designers from the countries where De Beers recovers diamonds, including Botswana, Canada, Namibia and South Africa.
Originally launched in 1995, the Shining Light Awards form part of the De Beers Group Designer Initiative (DBGDI), a youth beneficiation skills development initiative aimed at inspiring, igniting, and enabling young jewellers with world-class jewellery design and manufacturing skills in each of the company’s diamond-producing countries. The competition runs every two years and is open to jewellery designers aged 18 to 35 who are in their final year of a jewellery design programme, have already graduated or who have relevant experience in jewellery design.
This year’s design theme, “Luxury Redefined”, invited entrants to present innovative, authentic and inclusive visions of luxury, while celebrating diversity. Each entry included designs for a complete jewellery collection featuring a ring, necklace, earrings, bangles and bracelets. A total of 104 entries were submitted this year, from which 22 finalists representing each country were selected.
The Institution Award recognises the significant role that lecturers, trainers, and administrators have played in nurturing student talent. The objective of this award is to acknowledge and reward the hard work and commitment of those who contribute to the development of students, enabling them to excel in such esteemed platforms. The award comes with a prize of R80 000. The 2024 Shining Light Award prizes are designed to advance each winner’s career by further developing their skills and equipping them with essential tools for success.
The prizes include business support, a structured skills development programme, and tuition assistance, all aimed at empowering winners to build sustainable careers in the jewellery industry and contribute lasting value to their communities. De Beers Beneficiation Manager, Mr Kagiso Fredericks, congratulated UJ for empowering jewellery design students: “UJ’s efforts in providing high standards of education and training have made a positive impact on the quality of work the students have produced”.
Head of the Department of Jewellery Design and Manufacture at UJ, Thato Radebe, is thrilled about the department’s achievement. “I am delighted that our work has been recognised through this prestigious award. These funds will go a long way to improving our programme. We plan to use a portion of the prize money to assist deserving students from our undergraduate programme with their fees. We will use the remaining portion to service our 3D printers and set up a jewellery photobooth to ensure that our students produce excellent final presentations as part of their design portfolios.”
Since its launch more than 25 years ago, the Shining Light Awards have been a springboard for emerging jewellery designers across De Beers’ diamond producer countries. The prize pool for this year’s competition was R1,6 million per country. The competition runs every two years and is open to jewellery designers aged 18 to 35, who are in their final year, have graduated from a jewellery design programme or have relevant experience in jewellery design.
