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B a s e l

Jewellery Contest "Basel Award"

The names of the three winners were announced in the evening of March 23 at the show opening ceremony.

Designer - Natascha Rachel Reichel - winner of the First Award

The prestigious Basel Award, underwritten by 10 of Basel's leading jewelry exhibitors, is intended to do more than just encourage young designers.
"The perception is that we are primarily a watch fair," says Rene Kamm, director of the Basel Fair.
"But this is intended to underline our strong commitment to jewelry and the jewelry portion of our show, which has twice as many exhibitors (1,366) as the watch side (579)."

The ceremony featured flowing champagne and singing of the local celebrity diva Nubia whose voice borne an amazing similarity to that of world famous Whitney Houston. The winning pieces were presented by 10 most brilliant Italian models accenting the charming jewellery with their beauty.

The competition was remarkably feminine as 9 of the 10 winners belonged to the beautiful sex, including the three winners. The competition theme was "In Harmony with Nature". The first place winner became Natascha Rachel Reichel, 32, a student of the Fachhochschule (Technical School of Design) in Pforzheim for her necklace made of fine platinum wire and Tahitian cultured pearls, resembling tubular nets containing pearls fished from the sea.

Commenting her work Reichel said, "Again and again I see nets and I imagine how they hold a pearl inside as if I have just fished it out of the sea." Her award was 10,000 Swiss francs (about $6,250). Julie Fremolle of French school La Chaux de Fonds was awarded second place and 5.000 Swiss francs for a geometric bracelet. The third place and 2.5000 Swiss francs were given to a student of Italian jewellery school Maria Francesca Morese for a charming diamond pin.

Judges included some of the most renowned jewelry designers in the industry and points were awarded not just for beauty, but for cost-effective makeability. One of the contest conditions was sticking to the threshold limit of $5.000.

The finalists' sketches were presented to several jewelry houses: Alfieri & St. John, Carrera y Carrera, Chimento, Golay Buchel, La Nouvelle Bague, Mikimoto, Picchiotti, Roberto Coin, Schoeffel and Torrini which brought each entrant's vision to life.

The 10 pieces will be auctioned off at Christie's Geneva, with the proceeds going to Sir Peter Ustinov's Global Harmony children's charity.

Designer - Marie Guionnet