ZOLTAN DAVID SPARKED BY IMAGINATION. FORGED BY FIRE.
Zoltan David is a master jeweller and the founder of the eponymous high end “mystical” jewellery brand. His early fascination with metals, minerals and techniques, and the way objects were put together found its perfect expression in creating jewellery. Once he’d chosen his vocation, he apprenticed with a number of highly accomplished goldsmiths and designers which helped establish the foundation of his creative path. Today, his brand is one of the most highly regarded and his creations eminently collectible and collected. “I am an artist and an engineer, a designer and an inventor. I have a deep passion for beauty and a respect for its power to uplift and inspire not only me but all those who experience my creations. I often feel these creations are not so much mine as they are treasures I have discovered and revealed along my path of a jewellery artist.” Zoltan’s in-depth knowledge of, and artistry in working with metals is the product of a life-long pursuit of excellence. As his experimentation and research evolved, so too did his discovery of rare metals’ characteristics and secrets. His workshop is named Dancing Metals Studio because “ the metals perform as he choreographs”. An accomplished craftsman, he is best known and celebrated for the process of cold forged fabrication, inlaid metals and married metals. Critically, his work holds the only Metal Ornamentation patent in jewellery making. Zoltan considers wearability a vital component of jewellery. 38
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“Jewellery is a functional art. The design must be ergonomic; luxury MUST be comfortable.” Zoltan’s pieces are exhibited in a number of museums, including the Smithsonian Natural History Museum’s permanent display, the Museum at the Gemological Institute of America, and the Alfie Norville Gem and Mineral Museum. Collectors are the backbone of the brand and well aware of the distinction between collectible and iconic jewellery as opposed to merely statement pieces. “The fundamental aspect of collectible jewellery is the ability to identify the author at first glance. The second most important is that the work is not mass manufactured but rather, one of a kind or part of a limited edition. The third and most important is that the work be original.” Zoltan works with “all materials beautiful and mystical” but primarily with gold, platinum, bronze, aluminium, zirconium and steel. He incorporates all pristine and exquisite coloured gems, from rubies to lapis lazuli, to emeralds, turquoise, sapphires and jade. If he were to pick one historical or living personality for whom he would like to design a bespoke piece, that would be Coco Chanel, because: “She was a pioneer, a rebel, a trailblazer with a passion for originality and beauty. I like to believe that she would have fallen in love with a design I would create for her.”
