Jan Gjaltema

During his years as an architecture student, Dutch born Jan D. won a national contest for a new urban design of Rotterdam’s inner city, the "Weena prijsvraag ". At the end of the 1970s he received his Masters Degree in Architecture from the Delft Technical University in the Netherlands, where Rem Koolhaas currently teaches. After graduating, Jan began his career as a designer. During the 1970s he also studied lithography at the "vrije academie" "psychopolis" in The Hague.

Jan D. has been engaged in the design of furniture, glass, iron since the early 1980s, and has also occasionally dabbled into architecture .

The very private, some say reclusive, Jan D. is probably the only well-known jewelry designer that does not display his creations at craft and trade shows. Like many other well-known artists, his designs have often been copied but never duplicated to his high standard of craftsmanship.

Though Jan D.’s initial success occurred in Europe, his work is now in demand throughout the United States. Currently, more than 50 galleries in the U.S. represent his works.

All of Jan D.’s creations are handcrafted and fabricated - none are cast. He works with inlays of abalone, mother of pearl and resin in many different colors as well as with precious stones. In the late 1980s and early 1990s he did work in matte finish oxidized silver, and in the mid 1990s he created an extensive line with the combination of rosewood and silver. In the early years of this century he also worked with hand torched translucent enamel, and later fashioned a line with a glass /silver combination. In 2008 he presented a new jewelry line with silver and black obsidian, aventurine and rose quartz.

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