We are thrilled to be typing these words: After many months of intense work, our new production workshop is up and running, and even more wonderful than we imagined it would be!
Creating a functional and beautiful goldsmithing workshop was a dream from the earliest days of George Rings, and it's amazing to be at this point in the company’s story.
Planning the workshop over the last three years has consisted of three main categories of work: (1) refining our casting methods and determining the right equipment to acquire for our particular designs; (2) slowly putting together our small team of artisans who share both our vision and our love of gold; and (3) finding a beautiful space. On the topic of finding a beautiful space — it was much more difficult than we anticipated it would be. Modern industrially-zoned buildings are not built for beauty (shock), but rather for function, and most of the spaces we toured were windowless, low-ceilinged, cinderblock boxes that felt disconnected from nature, light, and reality. We didn’t want that experience for our goldsmiths or ourselves.
Last spring, we were lucky enough to find a historic, happily-situated brick building with large cast-iron windows, high ceilings, and strong concrete floors that was not only well-maintained, it was zoned for our type of manufacturing. It took several months to configure the equipment and work stations (a work that continues!), but in this new space we are not only creating perfect castings, we are also feeling joy.
As the founder and designer of George Rings, I am obsessed with how jewelry feels on the body, and until I started designing and making my own jewelry, I had never encountered any that felt good. Gold carries energy. Gold is warm. Gold is alive. It wants to be handled by artisans who love it and love what they are making.
It was labor-intensive to complete the set-up of this new workshop, but it is my belief that the physical space where this jewelry is made matters; the tools we use matter; the people we work with matter.
We are so grateful to have this space to continue to create beautiful jewelry for our collectors with joy and love in our hearts.
XO,
Chelsea Lauren
Founder and Creative Director