FIFA World Cup 2010: South African Jeweller Wooshen Pillay, makes time-less pieces in Gold, Silver & Diamonds of the Football Stadiums
The world cup venues in South Africa have seen some riveting action that summed up why the football world cup is the most watched sporting event in the world, as Spain, Germany, Uruguay and The Netherlands make it to the last four of the 19th edition of the tournament.
The games have been held in some stunning soccer stadiums, that are both state of the art and beautiful to look at, the best of them is the soccer city in Johannesburg that hosted the opening ceremony and the opening match. It is now bracing for the big final on the 11th of July, when two of the best teams will battle it out for the gold.
The design of the stadiums have impressed all and sundry including a jeweller in South Africa, who has displayed World Cup stadiums made out of gold, silver, diamonds and other gem-stones. The name of the jeweller is Wooshen Pillay, who is based in Midrand, midway between Johannesburg and Pretoria.
He claims that the stadiums have impressed him greatly and acted as an inspiration for him to design models by using gems after seeing their photographs. "Somebody sent me pictures of the stadiums, you know, the complete stadiums," he said. “I looked at these stadiums and I just thought to myself: Wow! These are going to make beautiful pieces of jewellery, so I kept it in my heart and I mentally pictured this piece and started chasing this dream."
Pillay’s pieces include some of the most picturesque Cape Town's Green Point stadium and Durban's Moses Mabhida stadium, that are straight-forward pendants but Johannesburg's Soccer City piece is much larger. The Green Point and Moses Mabhida pieces depict the stadiums in precious metals with a central gemstone.
The Soccer City piece carries extra significance as former South African president Nelson Mandela grew up close to the site of the stadium in Soweto. The stadium opens up to reveal a gold coin with Mandela's portrait on it, and there is golden handcuffs in the chain to denote Mandela's imprisonment on Robben Island.
The pieces were made to coincide with the World Cup but Pillay has yet to sell them, perhaps because he has become attached to them. He claims that he has a special affection for the pieces he made, and does not want to do away with them yet. He will prepare a price-list and sell the models if he gets the right price, yet he added that it would be tough for him to let go of them and he holds them very close to his heart.
The models are made through a meticulous process and Pillay has to put in a real effort into making his pieces. He generally chooses different coloured diamonds to reflect the chequer board design of the Soccer City stadium.
On the other hand, the most expensive of the pieces is the Moses Mabhida stadium prized at a whopping 555,000 Rand (about 71,500 U.S. dollars) as it contains a precious gemstone called Tanzanite.
"I sourced the highest quality diamonds, even including the yellow diamonds of the highest quality and so is the Tanzanite. I mean the Tanzanite on the Moses Mabhida piece is a 14, a 13.96, almost a 14 carat. It's a flawless, triple-A quality which is the highest quality Tanzanite."
Pillay has also constructed models of Green Point stadium which is up for sale at 350,000 Rand (45,000 U.S. dollars), while the Soccer City model is prized at 450,000 Rand (58,000 U.S. dollars).
He remains hopeful that the smaller pieces would invoke interest, just like normal chunky pendants, but the jewel in the crown is the Soccer City piece, which is expected to attract specialized buyers.
"These two particular pieces, they are wearable pieces," he said of the Green Point and Mose Mabhida stadiums.
He added that though the Soccer City model is a little bit bigger than the rest, yet it still pales in comparison to the size of pendants worn by rap stars in American music videos, which Pillay hopes will end up buying the models. For what it’s worth, he can try auctioning off the pieces to get the best price. After all, they bind together the memorable moments of the FIFA World Cup 2010, South Africa!
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