Young Designers Honoured in National Jewellery Design Competition

City of Glasgow College has announced the winners of its 7th National Secondary Schools Jewellery Design Competition, celebrating the creativity and talent of young designers from across Scotland.

This year's theme, Climate Change, inspired an exceptional response, with more than 700 entries submitted by secondary school pupils. The standard was so high that, for the first time in the competition's history, the judges selected joint winners.

Bethan Carroll from Shawlands Academy and Penelope Vanderwerf from St Andrew's Academy, Paisley, were named joint winners. Joel Watt from Balfron High School was awarded second place, Emily George from Bearsden Academy took third place, and Luke Parker from Kirkintilloch High School received a Highly Commended award.

Organised by the College's Craft & Design Department, the annual competition encourages young people to develop their creativity while exploring contemporary themes through jewellery design. This year's entries particularly impressed the judging panel for their originality, technical skill and thoughtful response to environmental issues.

The competition was judged by Sandra Gunn, Chair of Craft Scotland, Peter Crump, Managing Director of VIPA Designs Ltd, internationally renowned jeweller Maeve Gillies and jeweller and designer Ebba Goring.

The winning designs will now be transformed into wearable jewellery through the College's partnership with VIPA Designs Ltd. Each pendant will be developed using Computer-Aided Design (CAD) before being cast in sustainable AgAIN Silver, a recycled material recovered from discarded NHS X-ray film.

Peter Crump, Managing Director of VIPA Designs Ltd, said: "We greatly value our partnership with City of Glasgow College and the opportunity to support such a creative initiative. It's inspiring to see pupils' ideas developed into professional pieces through this collaboration."

The winners will be welcomed to City of Glasgow College after the summer break to see their designs brought to life and receive their finished pendants.

Congratulations to all of this year's winners and every pupil who took part in making the competition another outstanding success.