‘It was an amazing feeling’: Haywards Heath jeweller Hugo talks about winning BBC Two’s All That Glitters

The nail-biting final of the jewellery making contest was aired at 8pm last Tuesday (May 18) and saw the talented 24-year-old take home the trophy.

Hugo had to pull out all the stops to compete against the other two finalists Daniel Musselwhite and Tamara Gomez, and impress the show’s judges Shaun Leane and Solange Azagury-Partridge.

“It was definitely nerve-racking because if anything had gone wrong in that final that was your chances gone,” said Hugo, who works at RTFJ in Wivelsfield.

“And those few people in the final, they were there for the same reason and they were really trying to do their best as well,” he added.

In the final episode the three jewellers had to make a pair of pearl earrings, as well as a maang tikka bridal headpiece for a client’s Indian wedding.

Hugo said he found the headpiece to be the most difficult task of the episode.

“I was swimming in new waters there,” he said, adding that he had never made an Indian headpiece before and that it was challenging to turn his design into something physical.

“A lot of the time when you design something it doesn’t always translate the same way when you begin to make it,” said Hugo.

He said he had to adapt things as he went along and he even had to work out a quick redesign after ‘a little slip up’ with the stone he had originally planned to use at the top of his headpiece.

“As I was pushing down to secure the stone in the setting it chipped one of the corners,” Hugo said, adding that he felt his stomach sink as he realised there was no way to hide the mistake.