Winner · South African Contemporary Jewellery Week · University of Johannesburg · December 2021
The Award That Built a Studio
In December 2021, Lara entered pieces from her master's collection into the South African Contemporary Jewellery Week — and came home with the Professional Category Award. It did more than affirm the work. It helped build the studio VON ARA runs from today.
Some milestones arrive with fanfare. This one arrived quietly.
Lara submitted a selection of pieces from her Master of Visual Arts collection to the South African Contemporary Jewellery Week, held at the University of Johannesburg — one of the few national platforms dedicated to jewellery as contemporary art, rather than as a showcase of precious materials. She entered with more hope than expectation. She simply believed in the work enough to put it forward.
She came home with the Professional Category Award.
For any maker, recognition like that lands somewhere deep. It's a stranger's confirmation of a path you've mostly walked on faith — proof that the meaning poured into a piece reaches the people who see it. But this particular award did something more tangible, too.
The prize funds went straight into the foundations of Lara's at-home studio, invested piece by piece in the essential equipment a working jeweller needs.
Today, that same studio is where every VON ARA commission takes shape. It's a quiet full circle: an award for deeply personal art jewellery became the practical ground beneath the bespoke pieces clients wear every day. A milestone Lara still remembers with real gratitude.
“The recognition didn't just affirm the work — it helped build the room where the work now happens.”