Chris Lam, Higher Diploma student in Commercial Design (Jewellery of Design and Visual Merchandising) of the School of Continuing Education (SCE) won the first runner-up award (student group) in the 19th Hong Kong Jewellery Design Competition organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. His winning piece entitled KONG‧Marriage which creatively addresses the competition’s theme Vibrant Hong Kong, was exhibited at the 35th Hong Kong International Jewellery Show held in early March.

KONG‧Marriage puts a modern spin on the traditional dragon and phoenix bangles. Made of silver and artificial zircon, the pair of bangles took around two months to create, from design to production. His inspiration came from marriage customs, which vividly embody Hong Kong’s eclectic East-meets-West culture. The bangles intricately combine the Chinese characters for “East” and “West” as well as the English letters “E” and “W”, highlighting the blending of Chinese and Western cultures.

Gearing up for the competition, Chris enrolled specially in SCE’s part-time short course RhinoGold (Jewellery Design) during the summer break, hoping to optimise his designs. Much surprised by his success with his first attempt at an open competition, Chris said, “I used to study science in secondary school, and knew nothing about design before I joined SCE. With my comparatively weak background in art and design, I never expected that I would be shortlisted, let alone given an award.” Talking about the biggest challenge in the competition, he said, “I was not familiar with the software at the beginning, so when I first drew the 3D sketches, I had to keep on trying and revising the dimensions and colour combinations before I was satisfied with the outcome.”  

Chris attributed his accomplishment to the support from his family and classmates, and the guidance from his instructors.