About Us

* Goph's Bio *

A BRIEF HISTORY OF GOPH ALBITZ "DESIGNER"

In 1958 shortly after graduating from high school I started a four-year
apprenticeship as a precision toolmaker in the Aerospace industry in Santa
Monica, California, then three more years as a journeyman. This became the
basis of the precise tolerances and clean uncluttered lines that I use in the
construction of my work today.

I started my career as an artist in the 60's in Big Sur, from the years 1966 to
1976. There I open a small shop at the Coast gallery with another artist Karl Lee.
That came to an end in a winter storm that caused a landslide that washed my
studio into the Pacific Ocean.

In the process of starting over, a career that I had barely gotten started, I was
now working in my garage atop Pfeiffer ridge. This is when I started to design
my own look, to create a line of jewelry that was my own concept, and then take
it to market and let others stores do the sales. I wanted to create a look that
set me apart from the general idea of what jewelry should look like. Being self-
taught as a jeweler I was not bound by the traditional old school concepts of
how jewelry was suppose to be made. Instead, I took my approach from a more
modern industry. I was free to explore different techniques of construction,
using milling machines and lathes to produce very accurate models and the
use of high-tech adhesives for part of the construction; as long as the pieces
were strong, sound, and functional. The first collection was mostly in silver and
some 18k gold. It was a contemporary style with inlaid ivory and hardwoods. I
looked at it more as sculpture or “Art to wear” than jewelry. My marketing was
through an ad in New Yorker magazine.

The Phoenix shop in Big Sur was the first store to carrying my work. I had done
a lot of repair work for them of at that time very popular Indian jewelry. This is
where I learned to do inlay work. I had from the beginning cut my own stones
but now adding to my craft the art of inlay.

In 1976 I moved to Carmel, California. There I open a small design studio and
sold most of my work through a new store; Concepts, a Jewelry Gallery.

In 1980 I started on the work of a new line that I was going to take to New York
to do my first attempt at National wholesale marketing. I had been accepted to
a juryed A.C.C. show at Rhinebeck upper state New York; at that time the best
artist-designer craft show in the country. With limited materials to create the
new line. I had a lot of different inlay materials and bunch of small diamonds,
from these stones and my new milling machine; I set to work to combine them
into a clean new concept, "THE STACKING RING".

The square ring with the multiple combination of colors that each customer
could assemble to suit their own taste, and continue to collect new colors to
create endless variations. An elegant evening combination of black, white and
diamonds, or the more casual sporty look of bright bold colors, or the softer
look of glowing pastels.

At Rhinebeck I was received with relative success. I open several accounts in
various locations in the country. Two in New York, the Aaron Faber Jewelry
Gallery on Madison Ave. and Bendels Dept. store where I sold a collection of
hand carved ebony & ivory w/pearls earrings. The most significant result of the
show however was a man named Mort Ableson the head of "Jewelers of
America" and the organizer of the biggest wholesale jewelry show at that time
the JA show. It took place twice a year in New York, in Manhattan, the ultimate
market place!

Mort chose me and nine others to show our work in the new marketing
concept he had called "The Designer Room" bringing to the retail store owner
the idea of designer jewelry. Something that had been exclusive to either
galleries or designers that owned their own stores.

In the following years as a result of the New York show my work was carried by
some 50 stores through out the country. Including Saks Fifth Ave. Nordstrom’s
and Neiman Marcus. This exposure also brought about many invitations to do
shows at various galleries and fine stores.

In 1988 I was feeling that the original goal of being exclusive, unique and
cutting edge designer had eluded me. That my work was becoming a more
manufacture item and my personal involvement in the actual making of the
pieces was almost nonexistent.

I now had a staff of jewelers making my designs, and I mostly just was the
overseer of my creations. So came the decision to return to the bench and
start making and representing the work myself. In 1989 I open my own
“Designer Showroom” on Mission St. in Carmel, across from where my
workshop has been for the past 12 years. I slowly trimmed the operation down
to a few fine stores and my showroom. And by 1992 I had only one jeweler
Lech, a Polish jeweler who was the most accomplished at making the Stacking
Rings, and my newly married wife Lorry. She ran the store, that left me time
once again to do what I loved most; Design and actually make the custom “One-
of-a-kind” pieces from start to finish.

Then in 1997 came the current phase of my career. We pull up stakes and
moved to Bend, Oregon. A place Lorry had found in 1990 and had purchased a
small craftsman style home there.

On arrival in Bend I set out to find a place to build my dream studio and
eventually our dream home. We found just the place, 10 acres 3 miles from
town on the most pristine piece of property with large volcanic rock
outcroppings and views of the Cascades Mt. amongst the junipers. With plenty
of room to roam with our dogs and a place to establish gardens. The studio
was completed in 2000 and the house in 2005 a modern retro-industrial
concrete and steel, with lots of glass and galvanized siding.

Since I started working in my new studio I feel my work has truly blossomed.
Working once again as sole producer of my pieces from conceptual design, to
final hand fabricated gold work. This time I find myself working much larger
than I had before, starting with the conceptual idea of the piece and then
cutting each integral part out of precious or semi-precious stones. In some
cases where the color is more important I may even use laboratory grown
crystals if they best suit the effect I'm trying to achieve. Then each part is
assembled in hand fabricated 18k gold framework to be completed into the
finished piece of fine jewelry.

The studio also has room for me to pursue some of my earlier dreams and
quests such as sculpture, painting and most recently I added a forge and
welder to do large ironwork, or even furniture. Now in collaboration with Joe
Elliot of the Dry Canyon Forge of Bend, we have been working on a very large
forged steel and copper sculpture, hopefully to complete this year.

When I closed my showroom in Carmel to move to Bend, Steve and Elaine
Kaufman of Ladyfingers offered to represent my work in Carmel and have been
selling my “One-of-a-kind” pieces and the still ever popular “Stacking Rings”.

goph Studios

Next Show: TBA