[ Article appeared in Tribeza magazine, December 2003 issue]

Sir Zoltan David Jewelry Designer

Sir Zoltan David has just won the prestigious American Gem Traders Association's Spectrum Award for jewelry design...again.  This is nothing new for a jewelry designer with more than 11 other awards and a recent design patent under his belt.  With his international reputation and clientele, David could live anywhere, but he makes his home in Austin, and his studio and showroom are located amid the upscale shops of the Arboretum.

In his dimly lit showroom, diamond and gemstone rings, necklaces and bracelets shimmer in their spotlit glass cases.  David leads me over to one of the cases and points out the finer details of his work.  He uses only the highest quality platinum and gold in cold-forged, handcrafted designs.  They are set with ideal-cut diamonds and perfect gemstones, and decorated with David's own shape inlays, which he just patented this year.  He removes an exquisite pendant necklace from one of the cases.  The front of the pendant is rose gold with a shaped platinum inlay, punctuated by diamonds.  The back reveals the opposite design: rose gold inlay set into platinum.  Like several of his pieces, the necklace is reversible.  "It took about 30 years and 90 hours to make," he claims, jokingly referring to his 30 years of training.  "It is half engineering, half fantasy."

For a brief moment, I hold the dazzling necklace in my hands and entertain the notion of buying the stunning piece, until I realize that it costs more than my car.  But then again, I rationalize, it will likely last longer than my car.  David echoes my thoughts: "You will changes houses, cars and just about everything else before you change your jewelry.  Your mother's coffee table is not going to hold the same value as your mother's wedding ring.  Jewelry can capture a legend.  It tells a story.  It means so much more.

Indeed, David's jewelry has quite a story to tell.  His father was a Hungarian knight, a title he earned through his heroic efforts in World War II.  David remembers the days he spent as a young boy zooming around downtown Budapest on the back of his father's motorcycle.  Later, his father fought in the revolution against the Soviets.  Eventually, the family fled to Canada, where David first entered into the world of jewelry design.

"I always wanted to work with my hands," David says. Apprenticing with master goldsmiths and designers in Vancouver, David quickly became a skilled jewelry craftsman in his own right, and won the DeBeers Diamonds Today competition on 1979.  After that, he struck out on his own and opened a studio in Laguna Beach, California, before moving to Austin.

When asked what brought him to Austin, David laughs and shrugs," I fell in love with a beautiful Texas woman." A boat trip on Lake Travis convinced him to relocate, and he opened his Dancing Metal Studio in 1995.  The studio's workshop, which can be seen through a plate glass window in the showroom, is where David crafts and executes his intricate designs, with the help of four master goldsmiths imported from Germany, all of whom he personally trains.  "It's my little temple," he explains.  The work itself is quite meditative, but also he adds, "It is demanding.  It takes a very strong focus...I use my mind constantly and strategically when I am building a piece of jewelry, the way you do in chess..."

The results are impressive, and his signature geometric patterned inlays are immediately recognizable.  David remarks that he's always had an eye for design, but his interlocking diamond patterns somehow seemed to come naturally:  "It just fell out of the ends of my fingers, and I thought to myself 'What's up with this?'"  It wasn't until four years ago, when he returned to Budapest after 40 years away, that he realized the inspiration for these patterns.  "The Austro-Hungarian architectural details of Budapest are really similar to the motifs I use," David explains.  "That's the roots of it."

David's own personal roots to the Hungarian tradition of knighthood are also a major influence on his work.  When his father passed along the title to him almost 15 years ago, David became a knight in his own right.  The noble principles of this historic tradition, coupled with his strong belief in individual freedoms and human potential, are part of why he has such high standards for his jewelry: "Each and every design that we create is made to honor the principles that define the miracle that we truly are."  He adds, "It's honorably made.  It's not a shiny product at a price point.  It's not a trend.  I don't follow fashion - I set it."

If David seems to boast, it's for good reason.  He's one of only a handful of craftsmen in North America who can produce this kind of intricate, handcrafted work.  His award-winning designs, which are both classic and inventive, reveal a perfectionist's attention to detail.  Holding one of his necklaces in my hand, it is easy to see why his work has attracted a worldwide following, and also how clients are able to justify spending thousands on one of his pieces.  While David acknowledges that he's earned top honors and perfected his craft, he is driven to always improve and evolve as an artist: "When I'm 80 I want to be making more beautiful jewelry than I am making now.  I always want to make better jewelry tomorrow than I do today."