ONE of the first pieces of jewellery Miss Natalia Yudi made was a birthday present for her mother. When she was 10 years old, she managed to fashion a pretty bracelet out of her mother's leftover DIY costume jewellery materials of metal, leather, seashell and mother-of-pearl.

Now 22, Miss Yudi, who is pursuing a Jewellery Design degree at LaSalle-SIA College of the Arts, wants to set up her own line of jewellery in future. And winning top honours in one of three categories at January's Rotary Jewelry Design Competition, she says, has made her more confident about realising her dream. The winning designs of the competition will be showcased on the final day of SIJS at Suntec Singapore.

Miss Yudi's entry, the Verve ring, snagged an Outstanding Design Award in the Diamond Jewelry Evening Wear category at the event organised and sponsored by Larry Jewelry. The piece is an eyecatching 18K white gold band embellished with 76 sparkling round Lazare Ideal-Cut diamond, and it took her two weeks to conceptualise and complete the design.

Miss Yudi says: "The competition brief was Freedom. To further develop it, I focused on the notion of living life by our own rules and tried to portray our many expressive human gestures through the design.

"What I found challenging was to produce a unique design that could appeal to and yet not overwhelm most women. I like that the ring manages to strike a balance between being sleek and intricate. It's sophisticated yet subtle so I think it is very wearable, especially for Asian women."

Indonesian-born Miss Yudi, whose father is a businessman and mother a homemaker, is the second of three children.

ON DISPLAY: Miss Natalia Yudi's Verve ring, along with four designs from other winners, will be displayed and sold at the Larry Jewelry boutique at Paragon, #01-12. The pieces will be displayed alongside works by Larry's professional in-house designers. As a show of support to these aspiring young student talents, Larry Jewelry will donate 5 per cent of the proceeds from the sale of these pieces to the winner' alma maters.

She joined the design competition because it was an opportunity to share her creations with others. More importantly, she adds, competing with students from Hong Kong, Thailand and the Philippines helped push her capabilities further.

In fact, she had not expected to win. "I thought the other participants were very good. Also, as in any other competition, nobody could tell what pleased the judges until the results were released. I was really not very confident but I told myself I'd done my best. So I was really thrilled to win the competition, especially since it indicates that there are people who accept and enjoy my designs," she adds.

Miss Yudi is often inspired by Swedish jewellery designer Vivianna Torun Bülow-Hübe, whom she admires because "she could transform simple designs into something very elegant and outstanding".

Having lived in Singapore for three years, she has an insight into local women's taste and preferences in jewellery design which will come in handy as she
plans to find a job as a jewellery designer here after completing her degree studies next year.

Noting that more Singaporean women are going for more elaborate and bolder jewellery now, Miss Yudi feels her design style will suit the local market. She says: "My designs have a distinct touch because they combine subtlety and edginess. So they are excellent even for women who want to add something different to their collection of classic and simple pieces."

She also relishes the creativity that goes into churning out new jewellery designs, and the pride derived from knowing that her works help other women look and feel more special. All this boils down to her passion for jewellery.

She says: "As long as a person is passionate about her work, she can always produce good designs. In my case, my passion not only helps me focus on the details but also keeps me inspired and motivated to do my best."