Deadline for Make Your Mark Awards draws near

Submissions for the inaugural Make Your Mark Awards are set to close next week on Friday, 21 October at 5pm.

Entrants to the awards, which is run by The Goldsmiths’ Company Assay Office, will have the opportunity to win various prizes as well as having their work seen by a panel of expert judges, who will be looking for the best design of a precious metal piece incorporating a UK hallmark.

The aim of the awards is to celebrate the hallmark and challenge entrants to use creativity in where it is placed on their design.

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The judges:

• Stewart Hersey, Hersey Silversmiths
• Elizabeth Hunt, Allied Gold
• Leo Onoufriou, Just Castings
• Grant Macdonald, Silversmith
• Rosemary Ransome Wallis, art director and curator at The Goldsmiths’ Company

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Prizes have been donated by members of the trade and will be tailored to the winners’ specific needs and skillsets.

Winners and runners-up will also receive a selection of vouchers from businesses within the industry, as well as cash, an exclusive tour and hallmarking credits from the Goldsmiths’ Company Assay Office.

Meanwhile, special trophies have been designed for the event by Hatton Garden-based company, Creative Awards.

Robert Organ, deputy warden of the Goldsmiths’ Company Assay Office, said: “We want to encourage newcomers to the industry to embrace the hallmark as a way of enhancing and adding value to their work and to be creative in the way that they incorporate it into their designs.

“By displaying a hallmark prominently on a piece, a maker is not just demonstrating provenance and authenticity, they are also telling a story.”

Winners will be announced at an invitation-only reception on Tuesday, 1 November, at Goldsmiths’ Hall.