The Goldsmiths’ Craftsmanship & Design Awards 2026

Meet this year's top GC&DC winners, including the titanium feather brooch everyone is talking about and a new award from Stephen Webster

By Rachael Taylor

The Goldsmiths’ Craftsmanship & Design (GC&DC) Awards 2026 — which was held this year at Merchant Taylors’ Hall in London, while its usual venue Goldsmiths’ Hall undergoes a revamp — was once again a feast of creativity and talent.

The GC&DC Awards, which are organised by the Goldsmiths’ Craft & Design Council, celebrate not just the design of British-made jewellery and silver objects, but the skills required to make them. As such, the Awards quite rightly give a platform to talented craftspeople in the industry who often don’t get to stand in the spotlight.

This year, the Awards received 837 entries – a new record. Within the applications, graduate entries were up almost 20%, and the number of entries from apprentices was up 25%, with about 20% of those competing aged under 30. As Goldsmiths Craft & Design Council chair John Ball said in his opening speech: “This makes me feel very optimistic for the future. The volume and quality of entries are reassuring reflections of the staggering amount of creativity and energy we continue to have in the industry – particularly given the tough year we have all faced with rising materials prices.”

The Acanthus silver sculpture that won awards for silversmith Shinta Nakajima and polishers Kurt Calow and Ben Algar.

The en tremblant feather that stilled the room

At the GC&DC Awards, single designs can win several awards. Sometimes a finished work or 2D design can win more than one category. Or multiple people can win awards for the same piece in different disciplines, as happened at the 2026 Awards with the Acanthus chased silver sculpture (pictured above). Its maker Shinta Nakajima took home a Silver Award for its creation, while Kurt Calow and Ben Algar won the Lindström Award, a Gold Award and the highly prestigious Senior Award for their polishing work on the piece.

The most celebrated jewel of the night was Janet Barber’s Downy Feather Brooch (main image). It was the recipient of the Goldsmiths’ Company Award — the competition’s highest honour, reserved only for work of exceptional originality and execution. It also won six other awards across three categories: a Gold Award and The Freeform Fabrication Award for Laser Technology; a Gold Award and The Brown & Newirth Award for Jewellers Craft; and a Gold Award and The Gold & Silver Wyre Drawers Award for Wire Innovation.

The brooch is a tour de force of creativity and craft excellence. The feather-shaped brooch is rendered in anodised titanium, set with approximately 3,000 diamonds and a strip of mother-of-pearl as the quill. It is brought to life through intricate engineering that allows its elements to shiver with movement in the en tremblant style. What further elevates the piece is Barber’s layering of process: laser welding, engraving, chasing, forging, piercing, wire drawing. It is little wonder it swept multiple awards on the night.

Janet Barber (centre) collects just one of the seven awards she won for her Downy Feather brooch at the GC&DC Awards 2026.

The all-new Stephen Webster Award

Jewellery designer Stephen Webster, a long-time supporter and ambassador of the GC&DC Awards, introduced a new award in his company’s name at the 2026 Awards. The Stephen Webster Award was presented within the Jewellery & Smallwork award with the 2D Design section.

The brief set for this award was to create a design that could be both a piece of jewellery an an item of smallwork (a precious object). Designers were asked to incorporate the jewellery brand’s spirit: irreverence, with extraordinary creativity and clever use of materials.

The winners of the inaugural Stephen Webster Award were Bella Hunter and Sally Costen, who both also took home Gold Awards in the catrogory. Hunter had designed a tooth-shaped jewel that doubled as a lip charm and ash tray, while Costen created a silver beaker with a removable bracelet.

The 2D designs by Bella Hunter (left) and Sally Costen (right) that won the new Stephen Webster Award.

Apprentices, history-making polishers, and a gift from Cartier

One of the more emotional GC&DC awards is always The Theo Fennell Apprentice & Master Award, which celebrates the joy and creativity to be found within mentorship. It is jointly awarded to an apprentice and the master in charge of their craft education for a piece they have worked on together. This year, the winning jewel was the Infinite Geometry Drop Necklace by apprentice Josh Hook and master Dominic Walmsley.

Two of the top awards of the night are the Senior Award and Junior Award, which are given to the most outstanding pieces in those respective categories. Polishers Calow and Algar took home the Senior Award for the Acanthus sculpture, making them the first polishers to win such a major award and the first time such an award has been given for a collaboration. Annabel Hood won the Junior Award for the complex engraving work on her Florid Scrolls silver and steel disc, which she created as part of her gun engraving apprenticeship.

Katherine Campbell-Howard’s Ossature ring set with a faceted pearl won The English Art Works Bursary, supported by Cartier. As well as the coveted GC&DC Awards certificate, she has also been invited to take part in work experience at Cartier as part of her prize.

From left: Katherine Campbell-Howard’s Ossature ring set with a faceted pearl; Annabel Hood’s Florid Scrolls engraved disc; Infinite Geometry Drop Necklace by apprentice Josh Hook and master Dominic Walmsley.

Silversmith Clive Burr’s Lifetime Achievement Award

If the GC&DC Awards are, at their core, about the future of the trade, the annual Lifetime Achievement Award offers a necessary counterbalance. It is a moment to pause and recognise the individuals who have shaped it.

This year, the honour was awarded to silversmith Clive Burr, whose lifetime of work have encompassed everything from pieces for the catwalk, fashion and films, to silver elements for cars, fine jewellery, and major silverware commissions. His starry client list over more than three decades has included Queen Elizabeth II, The Oman of Kuwait, The Sultan of Brunei and No. 10 Downing Street, as well as Liberty & Co, Alfred Dunhill, Asprey, Garrard, De Beers, and Bulgari.

Burr demurely declined to give an acceptance speech on the night. In a video that was pre-recorded and shown at the Awards, the silversmith teared up as he said: “Looking back on my career, it’s been hard work, but incredibly rewarding and a lot of fun. A Lifetime Achievement Award… I’m super greatful, I’m speechless, but I would like to thank everyone who nominated me for this and my team over the years and my team now. This is something I never even considered would happen in my life. It’s a sincere priviledge. You go to work, you do what you do, and this [award] is someone looking in and recognising what you’ve been doing. That’s quite special really. “

Clive Burr (centre) accepting his Lifetime Achievement Award.

Watch a replay of the GC&DC Awards 2026 on YouTube‍ ‍

Main image: Janet Barber’s Downy Feather Brooch in titanium, set with diamonds and mother-of-pearl.