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Best of Competition: Hollow Cuff of Floating Diamonds by Todd Reed. 22K & 18K gold and sterling; hollow form pierced with 375 individual components, 400 cts. of natural diamond cubes. 3" x 3" x 3". Photo: azadphoto.com.

We were understandably a little excited. After over 50 years of writing about gems and jewelry, Lapidary Journal was putting its name behind a first-tier jewelry design competition, and we were determined to make it worthy of our magazine’s distinguished name and history. We had meetings where we debated finer points of entry forms and judging sheets, we brainstormed over possible prizes, we came up with a list of dream judges, and we hammered out rules and deadlines and details. News of the arrival of our first submission traveled around the office, and from then on, many of us made daily trips back to the office of our Assistant Editor to see how the stack of entries grew. And grew. And grew.

All told, we had nearly 250 entries, to be sent to that group of dream judges to winnow the many down to a choice list of 13: two winners in each category, plus a Best of Competition. We eagerly awaited each judge’s scores, then leaned over the shoulders of the people with their fingers on the calculators as they tallied the results. We were thrilled to see the list of winners come back — a collection of jewelry that any gallery would be proud to exhibit. Some of the winners were familiar names to us, some were new discoveries. And one was a student, who rose above the ranks of seasoned pros to be chosen as the winner in the Pendant/Necklace Division.

Lapidary Journal’s first-ever Jewelry Arts Awards has been a rousing success.

A word of appreciation to our judges: metalsmith Tim McCreight, jewelry artist Michael Boyd, and the polymer clay wizards Steven Ford and David Forlano. The judges were selected to reflect the all-inclusive nature of the competition; categories were determined by type of jewelry, rather than monetary value, and each was open to all media. Thanks also to the sponsors of our prizes. The grand prize winner received a fully outfitted “dream workbench” from Rio Grande, an all-in-one rolling mill from Karat, a mini workbench/soldering station from 46 Jewelry Supply, and a micrometer from Arjan Inc. Each first-place winner received a Ferris® Electric Pickle Pot from Swest. All winners and runners-up received a color poster of their winning design, produced by the creative team at Lapidary Journal.

2002 marked the first year of our Jewelry Arts Awards, a competition that we are determined will have a long and distinguished history of its own. 2003 information, rules, deadlines and official entry forms are online here.