Our Philosophy
Real jewelry becomes a part of you. It shapes and molds to your body and slowly takes on bumps and scars, telling a story of hands that have worked hard and adventures worth remembering.
Buy less and wear well. That's our motto.
We make pieces to the highest quality for exactly that reason. Jewelry you reach for every day, year after year, not something you retire to a drawer after a season.
Handcrafted & Hand-Carved
Traditional handcrafting goes into every one of our pieces.
We celebrate the skill of hand-carved waxes rather than digital design and 3D printing.
The art of hand carving jewelry from wax is an incredibly complex skill. There’s nothing wrong with digital design and 3D printing, it’s just important to understand that it’s different to hand carving.
For us, it’s the hand-carved element that transforms jewelry into treasure and makes it deserving of becoming an heirloom.
Jewelry has a rich history of being passed down through generations. We hope you treasure your Sturgis Jewelry pieces and pass them onto your loved ones when you’re done wearing them.
All our designs were carved by hand by the remarkably talented John Willers, read more about our story here.
Wearability
John felt strongly that jewelry is to be worn, not stored in a jewelry box or safe.
He wanted his customers to slide their hands in and out of their pockets and put their riding gloves on and off without issue. The comfort of John’s designs is second-to-none and anyone who wears Sturgis Jewelry regularly can attest to that.
Today, we have a ton of tattoo artists who love the ergonomic design of our jewelry because they can even wear their rings while tattooing!
We want you to wear and treasure your Sturgis Jewelry items for years to come. Fast fashion can go fuck itself, especially when it comes to jewelry. Investing in a piece of quality jewelry means you set your own trend in any season.
Sustainability & Materials
All our designs are crafted by hand in a small, family-run workshop in downtown Los Angeles, where everyone is paid a good, living wage. Sustainability and ethics guide every step of how we work.
We use 100% recycled metals.
We use a combination of lab-grown and natural stones, all of which are responsibly sourced. Sourcing the highest quality stones that perfectly compliment our designs is a complex endeavor. Sometimes lab-grown are better, sometimes natural take the cake.
The two exceptions are diamonds and opals. For these, we always use the highest quality natural stones.
In the case of diamonds, we want your stones to hold resale value, which lab-grown stones do not.
And as for opals... they were the apples of John's eyes. We use only AAA-grade solid Australian opals because each one is like a little universe, catching the light with mesmerizing depth and complexity. John bought a huge collection of these opals from Coober Pedy years ago and we're still setting them to this day.
Every choice, from the metals to the stones, was made with care.
If you have any questions about our process, materials or sustainability, feel free to reach out.