20th Anniversary Bright New Gems 2025 Winners Named

24 Sep 2025

Bright New Gems, the renowned industry mentoring platform that promotes the best in new talent, has selected this year’s six MA and BA graduate winners.  20 years since its launch, the programme has now supported 98 BNG designers, enabling them to showcase their work to the industry, retailers and opinion formers as they take their first steps on their career path.

Applications were received from graduating designers at 9 UK universities and colleges - Birmingham City University, Central Saint Martins,  Edinburgh College of Art, Glasgow School of Art, Hereford College of Art, Royal College of Art, and the University of the Creative Arts – with students from Carmarthen College of Art and UAL London College of Fashion entering for the first time.

As in previous years, the entries were judged across two categories – Responsible Thinking, Sustainable Eco Heroes and Show Off, Statement Pieces

 Winners : Show Off - Statement Pieces

Designs and /or finished pieces showing creative flair with innovative use of materials and which demonstrate potential commercial viability

Yosef Salih Murad, BA

Glasgow School of Arts

@YosefSMJewellery

Yosef Salih Murad explores the tension between imposed stereotypes and the personal journey of navigating, adapting, and reclaiming space within those constraints.

His collection, Regular Irregularity, explores the tension between imposed stereotypes and the personal journey of navigating, adapting, and reclaiming space within those constraints.

As an artist of Iranian heritage, he has often felt the impact of western media’s portrayal of his culture, which can create a sense of alienation and hesitation in unfamiliar spaces. This experience informs his work, driving him to create pieces that invite curiosity and connection. He wants his designs to captivate viewers, draw them in and encourage meaningful engagement.

His jewellery is deeply inspired by the cultural and symbolic role of the Persian carpet - a space for rest, nourishment, and storytelling. Through his work, he aims to translate this sense of communal gathering into tangible forms. He hopes those who wear his pieces carry with them a quiet invitation for dialogue, however brief, sparking moments of connection.

Bloom Brooch

The vibrant colour and scent of a flower blooms representing new life and growth.

Materials: Silver, Gold Plating, Cotton and a Steel

Céline Munisso, BA

University of the Creative Arts

@soul.carvings

 Céline Munisso is a Luxembourgish multi-material carver and jewellery-based artist who works in wax, tagua nut, wood, silver, pearls, and gemstones. Inspired by birds, her work explores fragility, symbolism, and resilience through sculptural and soulful pieces. With roots in drawing, carving, and circus arts, she brings unique sensitivity to her practice, refining her craft and creating intimate, meaningful objects. Her style and themes aim to inspire, spark conversation, and raise awareness around conservation, especially bird protection.

 Pay The Bill – The Avicide Collection - is created from love and concern for avian life, confronting their beauty and the threats they face. Birds are essential to ecosystems and culture worldwide. Through aesthetic reflection and education, the collection urges us to reconsider our role in their survival and the urgent need to protect them. Her piece ‘Sinful Indulgence’ confronts the hidden brutality of the French delicacy ortolan, where a tiny songbird is captured, drowned in Armagnac, and eaten whole under a napkin, said to hide the act from God. A baroque pearl on a silver plate stands for the bird, while candle and wine glass evoke ritual, grief, and indulgence. The cloche conceals and reveals, its red interior recalling blood and consumption. Together, these elements form a set table worn as a ring, asking whether the wearer will cover the truth with the cloche or confront it in plain sight.

 

Sinful indulgence

Materials: sterling silver, Anjan wood, freshwater baroque pearl, 24K gold leaf, red cold enamel, copper

Ruby Lanigan,  BA

Birmingham School of Jewellery

@rubygracejewellery

Ruby Lanigan’s collections and designs are deeply inspired by the world of architecture. Living between the beautiful landscapes of Shropshire and the dynamic cityscape of Birmingham, she is constantly captivated by the contrasting styles of architecture. The stark differences between the modern, brutalist designs and the ornate elegance of styles like Baroque architecture have always fascinated her.  Her Baroque Architecture Neck Piece is inspired by the grandeur of Baroque architecture whose intricate, opulent gold detailing and vibrant, almost chaotic beauty,  led to the creation of the bold necklace. This piece is versatile, offering five distinct ways to wear it. The reversible chain features two sides: one richly detailed and the other more minimalist. The attachable pendant can be worn separately on a chain.

 

Baroque Architecture Inspired Neckpiece

Materials: Gold plated Sterling Silver, Garnets, cubic zirconia

Lengling Bai, MA

Central St Martins

@baibaio0o

Lengling Bai’s jewellery explores sustainable materials, handcraft, and the body’s curves. Her work merges traditional techniques with contemporary scale, creating large, fluid forms that wrap and move with the wearer — reimagining jewellery as an intimate, organic extension. Shimmer Ripple is a collection of three necklaces, one pair of earrings, and one bracelet inspired by sunlight rippling on water. Using paper yarn and silver-plated copper wire, each piece is hand-knitted into flowing linear forms with subtle layers of light and shadow. The design explores purity, movement, and the body’s natural curves. Lightweight and wearable, it emphasizes the beauty of sustainable materials and traditional craft. In contrast to the industrial world, Shimmer Ripple reconnects the wearer with nature’s quiet rhythm, capturing the elegance and harmony found in water and light.

 

Shimmer Ripple- Necklace 2 and earrings

Materials: Paper yarn, Copper,  Silver-plated copper

Winners:  Responsible Thinking - Sustainable Eco-Heroes

Designs and/or finished pieces made with responsibly sourced or sustainable materials to reflect the growing demand and interest in sustainability.  These pieces should demonstrate potential commercial viability.

 Lulu Tian, BA 

Central St Martins

@luluuuu_art

Lulu Tian’s practice bridges traditional metalsmithing techniques with experimental approaches to new materials, creating pieces that push the boundaries of adornment. Balancing craftsmanship and innovation, Lulu explores how jewellery can exist as both wearable art and conceptual design.  Her collection ‘The Ocean Left It’s Dead Alive’ explores jewellery, biomaterials, and the marine cycle through fish scale bioplastic, a biodegradable material from discarded fish scales. Inspired by seaweed, plankton, and coral, the modular pieces flow organically across the body. Dyed with natural plant-based pigments, they celebrate ecological sensitivity while reflecting on beauty’s impermanence. These wearable forms embody the ocean’s resilience, drifting between adornment, transformation, and an eventual return to nature.

Soft Clusters I,  Biotic Loop I, Microbloom II, Abyssal Threads I

Materials: Fish scales, glycerine, weld natural dye, brazilwood natural dye, madder natural dye, indigo natural dye, sorghum natural dye

Bocen Zhou, MA

Royal College of Art

@bocen_zhou

Bocen Zhou is inspired by literary metaphors, art historical contexts, and ecological philosophy and her practice explores symbiotic relationships within the framework of the

Anthropocene.

From Dust, To Dust is a series that explores the boundaries between matter and spirit, order and chaos, life and death. Using the symbol of the pebble, it narrates the cosmic cycle and the

transformation of matter, revealing the romance and poetry embedded in the life cycles of the universe. Soil becomes both the origin and end of life-a boundary where cycles converge. Between

earth and kiln, in transparency and silence, the work constructs a field of flow between order and entropy, linking the ephemeral existence of the individual with the eternal rhythms of the cosmos.

Through a dialogue between dust, soil, glass, and pebbles, the series weaves a narrative about the universe, time, and life-inviting the viewer to reconsider their relationship with nature, temporality,

and the Other.

The pieces are crafted using her original kiln-formed glass bubble technique, incorporating natural soil, recycled glass, and reclaimed silver in response to the global demand for sustainable development.

The Life of A Pebble 2025

Materials: Soil, glass, silver

 Judging Panel 2025:

 New judge Ruby Beales, jewellery buyer at Liberty London, joined the existing panel of judges to choose this year’s winners. The judging panel is made up of influential industry and consumer editors and experts in the sector – all of whom bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the panel and include:

Tomasz Donocik, award winning designer and 2006 Bright New Gem. 

Maria Doulton, Editor-in-chief/Co-founder of The Jewellery Editor

Liz Olver MA RCA, Independent Jewellery Consultant

Susi Smither, jewellery designer and responsible and sustainable industry expert . Founder of both The Rock Hound, East London’s Gemmologist Jeweller and Fair Luxury collective.

Judge Susi Smither commented,

"With a legacy of talent spotting the best jewellery graduates over the course of the last twenty years, the onus is on us judges to get it right. It is always an honour and this year proved challenging as it was tight at the top.  We’re thrilled to share our new cohort and I can’t wait to watch them shine.”

Liz Olver added,

“Marking 20 years of Bright New Gems with such a strong group of winner feels incredibly rewarding.  Each has shown originality and commitment, and it’s inspiring to see how the next generation of jewellers is shaping the future of our industry.”

The support from the industry is invaluable and includes the National Association of Jewellers for their dedicated mentoring, the Benevolent Society for donating a special winners travel and accommodation bursary, Retail Jeweller for providing support and a showcase at the forthcoming  Retail Jewellery Festival in March 2026, The Goldsmiths’ Centre for opening ‘Getting Started’ up to the winners, The GoldDust Collective for membership support, and to Jewel Ads for their ongoing online support, including showcasing the winners and their work in the lead-up to the 2026 Jewellery Festival.

View Bright New Gems

Source: Bright New Gems