Lafayette, CA, jewelry designer Ronda Coryell of Ronda Coryell Designs recently won First Place at the 2002 Saul Bell Design Award competition for jewelry design. Her award-winning piece is a sterling silver and 22K yellow-gold bracelet accented with round blue sapphires. As an instructor of anticlastic and granulation techniques at Revere Academy, she usually works in gold and creates traditional granulation pieces. For the second annual Saul Bell Design Award, she designed a piece that reflects the ancient look of granulation with a very contemporary shape. Ms. Coryell received a $2,500 gift certificate from Rio Grande for her winning piece in the Silver category.

The annual competition honors Rio Grande’s founder, Saul Bell. The 2002 competition challenged jewelry designers to create original and innovative pieces. Designers were asked to choose one of four design categories as the foundation of their piece and were allowed to integrate any additional stones or materials into an original, wearable jewelry design.

A judging panel of industry experts selected the winning creations.

• John Atencio, Jewelry designer
• John Cogswell, Metalsmith
• Peggy Jo Donahue, Editor-in-Chief of Professional Jeweler Magazine
• Carrie Soucy, Senior Editor of JCK Magazine
• Rich Youmans, Associate Publisher of AJM Magazine
• Ester Fortunoff, Executive Vice President of Fortunoff’s

First Place Silver Category