18k gold & sterling silver, 7 diamonds totaling .25 carat, 16" long, signed....David Yurman grew up on Long Island, New York. At age 16, he met Cuban welder and sculptor Ernesto Gonzales who taught him the direct welding techniques that inform Yurman’s work today. After a year at New York University, David left college and spent the next five years hitchhiking between Greenwich Village, Venice, and Big Sur, immersing himself in the Beatnik and San Francisco Renaissance cultural movements. In the early 1960s, David apprenticed for several years with modernist sculptor Jacques Lipchitz. He also established his own studio in Greenwich Village and worked for various sculptors, including Theodore Roszak. In the late 1960s, David became the shop foreman for sculptor Hans Van de Bovenkamp and it was in this studio that David met the painter Sybil Kleinrock, his future wife and business partner. Artistically, this was an exploratory time for David, when he experimented with many different materials and honed his craft.In the early 1970s, David and Sybil moved to Carmel in upstate New York and formed a company called Putnam Art Works, which specialized in sculptural jewelry. Throughout the next decade, David and Sybil exhibited their jewelry designs, sculptures, and paintings at various galleries and craft fairs. They became key figures in the American craft movement. Through Putnam Art Works, the Yurmans learned the marketplace for fine crafts and artisanal jewelry. They married in 1979 and founded the David Yurman company a year later, with Sybil Yurman acting as a co-creator and collaborator in all facets of the business. Their son, Evan Yurman, was born on January 31, 1982. In 1987, David Yurman debuted his jewelry designs at the World Watch and Jewelry Show in Basel, Switzerland, the world’s largest and most important jewelry and watch show. This appearance symbolized the world-class status achieved by the David Yurman brand after just seven years in existence. David Yurman became a member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 1999.During the 1980s and 1990s, the David Yurman company was at the forefront of the emerging category of American designer jewelry. In 1977, David was chosen as one of twelve jewelers to exhibit at the first New Designer Gallery at the Jewelers of America show in New York City, now recognized as a pivotal moment when traditional artisans connected with established merchandisers. David and Sybil approached jewelry design with an artist’s approach, creating thematic pieces that would be all shown together as collections. The David Yurman company was one of the first jewelry design houses to be known as a “brand” with its own devoted following.In 1982, Yurman introduced what became his signature piece, the cable bracelet: a twisted helix adorned with gemstones on its end caps. He called the bracelet and related designs “Renaissance,” and it has become one of his most enduring collections. His cable design evolved to become the thread that connects all of his collections.