GIA Korea Student’s Jewelry Piece on Exhibit in Global Tour

CARLSBAD, Calif. – Aug. 27, 2009 – The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) Korea has announced that Guerina Yoo, a Graduate Gemologist (G.G.), has been selected as one of the top four finalists in the Hoge Raad voor Diamant (HRD) Awards. Yoo’s piece, along with those of the other finalists and winner of the contest, will be part of the HRD Awards Collection 2009 exhibit, which will be on view at the Antwerp Diamond Museum starting in September, then displayed in eight other countries throughout 2010.

The HRD Awards contest is organized by the Antwerp World Diamond Centre as a forum for young jewelry designers to encourage creativity and design excellence in contemporary diamond jewelry. The winner and finalists were announced in June; they were selected from 1,089 designs prepared by 654 artists from 40 countries. All of the jewelry pieces submitted to the competition had to portray a fairytale theme and the winners were chosen for the artist’s excellence, innovation, enthusiasm and craftsmanship.

Yoo created a hair piece based upon the Korean fairy tale “The Woodsman and the Fairy.” Korean brides’ hair accessories are usually made of yellow gold, but Yoo chose dark bamboo to depict a sad girl forced to marry. The veil attached to the bamboo stick symbolizes a robe of feathers, set with 506 brilliant-cut diamonds, with a total weight of 15.62 carats

“We are extremely proud of Yoo for receiving this recognition,” said Seung Hae-Moon, GIA Education managing director of South Pacific Asia. “For her creative piece to be selected from more than a thousand other designs from all over the world is a testament to how the Institute’s students help set the standard of excellence on a global level.”