06 Nov 2019

Jewellery designer Ms Gaone Otsile is this year’s winner of De Beers Shining light awards alongside three other winners from Namibia, South Africa and Canada.

The shining light awards seek to recognise and celebrate emerging jewellery designers in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Canada while providing entrants with valuable platform to build their careers in the jewellery design industry.

Ms Otsile will get a 12-month apprenticeship at the Forevermark Design and Innovation Centre in Milan, Italy where she will have the opportunity to work alongside jewellery designers at one of the world’s fastest growing diamond brands.

Speaking after her win on Tuesday night, Ms Otsile, who has a background in public health, said her design was inspired by legendary human rights icon Winnie Madikizela-Mandela who embodied strength and femininity.

Ms Otsile, who was still shocked by her win, said she did not expect it as she was only testing the waters as a newbie in the industry. 

“With the theme this year being; Heroines and Heritage’, my inspiration behind the design was Winnie as she has a rich background in women and human rights, and her persona embodied a well-rounded African woman, always covering her head with a doek,” she noted.

Despite her background in public health, Ms Otsile has always been artistic and creative which inspired her to for a certificate in Jewellery Design with Oodi College of Applied Arts and Technology a few years ago. 

“That is when I fell in love with jewellery design,” she shared.

Shortly afterwards, she got an opportunity to enroll in a Channel foundation programme in France where she benchmarked on jewellery design and manufacture for a month. 

Following that, she enrolled in the Shining Light programme where she is currently based in South Africa.

Ms Otsile said she hoped to use her experience in Milan to mentor those who aspired to be goldsmiths, given that jewellery design was currently non-existent in the country.

“Europe is good in jewellery design and manufacturing so I look forward to bringing those skills home as I want us to create our own products here in Botswana,” she shared.

Her biggest message to those who might in future aspire to join the industry was that art was more than just a drawing. “Through art we can carve our own future in the diamond value chain,” she noted.

In his address when opening the diamond conference, President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi underscored the need for Botswana to move further into the diamond industry value chain by venturing into jewellery making, manufacturing and retail with a view to promote Gaborone as a diamond city and Botswana as the number one diamond destination of choice.

Botswana is this year host to the 5th edition of the diamond conference which has brought together international and regional leaders in the diamond industry to engage on fundamental matters impacting, challenging and inspiring the industry. ENDS