Loved by the stars and the people this man has hauled himself from obscurity only 30 years ago to become one of the most acclaimed jewelry designers in the world....not bad for a high school dropout !
Yurman came from a family that nurtured creativity and so it was no great surprise when he started showing an interest in art and sculpture. However, Yurman wasn't only a flakey artist he already had a sound business head on his young shoulders and was soon selling small sculptures to his friends at school.
Perhaps realising that an academic education wasn't to his calling he dropped out of college and spent much of the 60's hanging out in Greenwich Village in New York City. This area was a hotbed of creativity at that time with young writers, poets and artists rubbing shoulders with each other. David Yurman enjoyed his life as a sculptor being priviliged to meet many famous artists.
Who's to say what path his life might have gone if he hadn't met the love of his life on a chance encounter. She was also a young artist by the name of Sybil and they both fell in love with each other.
Yurman would often fashion small sculptures for Sybil as tokens of affection and one such item (a belt buckle) caught the eye of an art dealer. He made a business proposition to David asking if he could mass produce these buckles where they could then be sold commercially. Like many a struggling artist Yurman's proud integrity prompted him to reject this offer as he probably felt the creation of the buckle was too personal to then go and commercialize it but showing his innate talent for business he quickly started thinking of ways of producing more commercial pieces.
His breakthrough came in the 1970's with the creation of a silver bracelet that had a ground breaking design that resembled a twisted rope. Sales went through the roof and David Yurman quickly became a household name.
He has since consolidated his reputation as the number one jewelry designer the United States and expanded his collection to include necklaces, rings, earrings, sunglasses, watches and even fragrances.
His jewelry can be expensive but he uses only the best materials and each design whispers quality. However, it would be wrong to say his jewelry is prohibitively expensive because they're not. Some items in his collection retail only for a few hundred dollars.
Having said all of that sometimes with jewelry it's about making a statement, whatever statement that might be but normally it's love ! You can't put a price on it.
