AMERICAN JEWELRY DESIGN COUNCIL ANNOUNCES WINNER OF 2008 NEW TALENT CONTEST

(San Francisco-March 16, 2008-- The American Jewelry Design Council, the non-profit educational corporation that recognizes and promotes the understanding of original jewelry designs as art, is proud to announce the winner of the 2008 Grand Prize of its annual New Talent Contest. The Council selects its winner based on the originality, craftsmanship, innovation, marketability and cohesiveness of design. The 2008 winner is Nina Basharova. The Council also recognized six finalists: Belle Brooke of Belle Brook Designs, Liaung Chung Yen of Chunk Yen Designs, James Cleland of St. Louis, MO, Jack and Elizabeth Gualtieri of Zaffiro Jewelry, Mayra Orama of Mio Studio, and Natasha Wozniak of Natasha Wozniak Design.

As Grand Prize winner, Nina Basharova will receive an all-expense-paid booth to exhibit her collections in the New Designer Gallery at the July 2008 JA New York Summer Show which is held at the Javitz Center. During the JA Show, the AJDC will honor Nina at an award ceremony and present her with a trophy made by AJDC-member Michael Good. Nina will also receive professional support from members of the AJDC on making the step to larger markets.

Nina Basharova was born in the Russian Federation and raised in the Ukraine. She began her studies with Fine Arts while living in the Ukraine and went onto get a degree in jewelry design at the Art College in Haifa. She arrived in New York in 2002 and began carving out her own original identity of hand finished pieces that blend together an artisan's eye for craft and detail with a truly modern sensibility. Winning awards is something Nina has become quite accustomed to. She was twice honored with the Sharett Scholarship of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, and has gone on to win or place with the MSJA Vision Award, the WJA Diva award, The Tahitian Pearl Trophy Award, The Niche Award, and the JCK Jeweler’s Choice Award. She will be exhibiting in the JCK Design Pavilion as one of 2008’s Rising Stars. Nina’s graceful, elegant, yet highly contemporary pieces of jewelry have also caught the attention of dozens of editors and been featured widely in the trade and consumer press.

The American Jewelry Design Council is a group of over thirty nationally prominent designers who have banded together in order to increase the artistic appreciation of original fine jewelry. Members of the American Jewelry Design Council are dedicated to elevating the caliber of jewelry design through educational activities and to challenging professional jewelry designers worldwide to actualize their creative potential.

The Council’s current membership includes esteemed designers Alan Revere (President of the Council), Henry Dunay, Whitney Boin, Sarah Graham, Robert Lee Morris and the late Steven Kretchmer. In coordination with the Jewelers of America, the AJDC’s New Talent contest has been a major annual success, each year exposing a single outstanding designer to national and international jewelry buyers.

For additional information, contact: American Jewelry Design Council, www.adjc.org Alan Revere, President, alanrevere@aol.com, (415) 391-4179.