GJSCI Reveals Winners Of Hupari-inspired Revive Design Contest

The Gem & Jewellery Skill Council of India (GJSCI) recently organised an inter-institute design competition, Revive Design Contest, offering an opportunity for budding jewellery designers to showcase their talent while embracing ancient techniques. Those who made it through the preliminary rounds were taken to the town of Hupari near Kolhapur in Maharashtra, famous for making silver jewellery ornaments.

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The aim of the contest was to uplift the Hupari artisans practising age-old jewellery techniques and enable the young talent to blend with the custodians who follow 200-year-old methods of silver jewellery making, and share creative designs and promote design excellence in the jewellery industry.

After studying the cultural jewellery making art of the town, the 12 contestants who entered round two, created 25 sketches each, featuring semi-precious stones, pearls or enamelling.

The preliminary round that attracted 60 entries from students of NIFT, GIA, INSD, SNDT and IIGJ were judged by industry experts Veena Shah and Vidhya Mazumdar. The final round was judged by jewellery designers Gautam Banerjee, Laksh Pahuja, Deeta Thakural, Sucheta Kashikar, Rupali Gupta, Shefali Patel, Aditi Motla, Hetal Vakil, publisher of The Retail Jeweller magazine Samit Bhatta, and managing editor of Solitaire International, Shanoo Bijlani.