Lightning Ridge Opal Awards: Here are the Winners of the $35,0000 Australian Opal Awards 2024!
The brand new Australian Opal Awards were held at the Lightning Ridge Bowling Club on Friday, July 26th, Lightning Ridge, New South Wales, Australia. The competition includes seven jewellery award categories and a people’s choice award, with over aud$35,000 in cash and prizes.
And we have all of the winners here for you in the Roskin Gem News Report!
AOA
The Australian Opal Awards is the award section of the International Opal Jewellery Design Awards Association (IOJDAA). The association is a not for profit organisation founded in 2000 to promote freeform and or undulating opal. It is dedicated to supporting the opal industry and the Lightning Ridge community at large.
AUSTRALIAN OPAL AWARDS – CATEGORIES
- Open Prestige Jewellery – featuring any shaped Australian opal
- Freeform Prestige Jewellery – featuring freeform/undulating Australian opal
- Masterpiece Australian opal carving
- Freestyle Australian opal carving
- Designer Wear for Men – featuring freeform/undulating Australian opal
- Digital Jewellery Entry – featuring freeform/undulating Australian opal
- Jewellery Hand Sketches
- People’s Choice
To MC the awards ceremony was Ruth Benjamin-Thomas, of Black Opal Direct.
WINNERS OF THE $35,0000 AUSTRALIAN OPAL AWARDS 2024
With over 250 in attendance, the winners of the Australian Opal Awards were announced! And the $15,000 Open Prestige Jewellery Award was won by Artisan Bespoke Jewellers for their piece “Khroma”.
“The winning piece Khroma was unique in design and meticulously crafted with a very clever use of coloured gems to enhance the opal”, said Gary Coffey from Giulians Fine Jewellery who judged the award entries alongside Cameron Marks from Percy Marks and Terry Coldham from Intogems who is also the Patron of the Gemmological Association of Australia. The judges, who were extremely generous with their time, have over 130 years of combined experience in the jewellery and gem trade.
The Freeform Jewellery Award went to “Once Upon a Time” by Blennerhassett Fine Jewellers who won $7,500 sponsored by the Australian Opal Awards.
Designer Wear for Men, $2,500, sponsored by Black Opal Direct was won by Dean Walker Designs with their piece “Outback Opal Hunters”.
The $2,500 Masterpiece Opal Carving, sponsored by Down to Earth Opals Pty Ltd was won by Katharina Zimmer for her piece “Ridge Rose”.
Kaitlyn McWilliams received a Highly Commended for her piece “Cerulean Crest”.
The $2,500 Freestyle Australian Opal Carving, sponsored by Down to Earth Opals Pty Ltd was won by Joe Belicka for his piece “Crystal Blossom”.
Down to Earth Opals also sponsored a free carving workshop as a Carving Encouragement Award which went to “Scallop” by Penny-Ann Clark.
Austgems Pty Ltd sponsored the $1,500 Digital Jewellery Entry Design Award which was won by Corey Gibson for his piece “Spinner”.
The $1,000 Jewellery Hand Sketches Award sponsored by Absolute Opals & Gems Pty Ltd was won by Hung-lin Jenia for “Golgotha”. Pauline Bai received a Highly Commended for “Seahorses.”
“Seahorses” by Pauline Bai, received Highly Commended in the Jewellery Hand Sketches category
The $1,000 People’s Choice Award sponsored by Black Opal Direct was won by Otto Jewellery for “Fire Bird”.
New Rules and Categories for 2024
“It’s always a challenge when you do something new,” says President Kavitha Barron. “We revamped the Awards and rationalised the jewellery categories. We received some incredibly constructive feedback from entrants, judges and sponsors alike. The outcome being that we really got it right, but we will be tweaking it a little bit to keep improving.”
So as they say in all competitions, wait until next year!
Some other entries for which we have images that we would like to highlight here are the following:
Prestige Open Jewellery
Blue Eye – Gennadiy Karpenko
Cavita’s Love – Gennadiy Karpenko
Garden of Eden – Weiss Opals
Iris of Koroit – Deirdre Featherstone
Midnight in the Daintree – Rhea Poddar
Seaworld – Gennadiy Karpenko
Freeform Jewellery
A glitch in the Matrix – Corey Gibson
Reunion 3 – Sandy Bucknell
Mori Chikara – Mishka Leith
The Snow Goose – Ffion Caines
Purple Sunbeams – Samantha Tsiagalis
Freestyle Carving
Tinysaur – Justine Buckley
Indian – Leanne Stanton
Jewellery Hand Sketches
Jim Jim Falls – Chia Wen Chang
And none of this would be possible without the generous sponsors listed below:
True Blue Opals Pty Ltd
Iris Opals Pty Ltd
Down to Earth Opals Pty Ltd
Austgems Pty Ltd
Black Opal Direct
Absolute Opals & Gems Pty Ltd
Lahoud Opals Pty Ltd
Australian Opal Association
Walgett Shire Council
Lightning Ridge District Bowling Club
Lightning Ridge Miners’ Association Ltd
For more information about the AOA and the Opal Awards, Tap Here!
