Michael B. - Jewelry Designers in Virginia

800.969.9949

Michael Bogosian, aka Michael B., was born in 1950 in Istanbul, Turkey, the former capitol of the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires and home to a tradition of fine jewelry spanning over two millennia. At the age of 10, Michael carried on his fathers legacy and began a full-time apprenticeship with one of the finest jewelry houses in Istanbul. By age 16, Michael had learned every facet of the trade, cultivating the highest level of skills a jeweler could achieve in metal, diamond setting and design, imagining intricate designs and creating pieces from start to finish. With an amazing array of skills and dreams of a better life, Michael left his roots in Istanbul as a teenager and headed for America with just $75 in his pocket. Connecting with a relative who had already emigrated to the U.S., Michael arrived in Studio City, California, centrally located near many of the hottest names in the entertainment industry. Within a few years, Michael developed a reputation as the finest jeweler in the area, and in 1972, he founded Matthews, a retail jewelry store named after his first son. Today, Matthews stands as one of the premier jewelry boutiques in all of Los Angeles. Over the years, Michael has serviced too many celebrity clients to list, and do not expect him to name drop. Michael bonds with each of his clients on a personal level and feels very strongly about respecting their privacy. From his own perspective, Michaels crowning achievement came in 1983 with the creation of a custom jeweled egg, symbolic of the Romanov eggs made by the House of Faberg in czarist Russia. The egg was commissioned by a renowned businessman who possessed one of the finest collections of antique cars and fine jewelry in the world. The client wanted the egg for the purpose of presenting his wifein a box fit for a princesswith a small, inexpensive but sentimental ring he had given her many decades before. Such a romantic purpose inspired Michael to unsurpassed heights. With money as no object, he began with two plates of 18 karat yellow gold and formed them by hand into the top and bottom of the egg shell. With an ink pen, he then drew the outline of the jeweled portion of the egg casing, forming the lines from which he would precisely cut each segment with an intricate hand saw. Over a two year period, Michael set the joints of the egg with precious gemstones, had the intervening segments filled with orange enamel, and hand-made a miniature antique gold car, secured onto a gold platform to conceal the surprise inside. The jeweled egg can be seen on display at the San Sylmar Museum in Southern California and stands as a testament to love and perfection, the hallmarks of every Michael B. piece. In the early 1990s, when gold was still king, Michael re-discovered an old friend, Platinum, and transformed the jewelry industry forever. The metal of royalty first made famous by Louis Cartier, Platinum had been ignored by a jewelry establishment increasingly focused on mass production. Although a softer metal, Platinum is far more dense and durable than gold. As a result, working with Platinum requires far more skill, time and effort. Michael had the skill, and his time and effort soon followed. By the end of the decade, Michael turned Platinum into a household name with an array of innovative and spectacular designs. Michael was the first to implement Micro Pav, an intricate and painstaking yet elegant method of setting ultra-miniature diamonds to lend a more delicate ambience to the center stone than had ever been achieved. When he introduced the Trois Collection, Michael set another trend by incorporating a matching band on each side of the engagement ring. The result is an unsurpassed level of balance and symmetry now featured in his other award-winning bridal collections. Michael was also first to focus not just on the outside of the ring but on the bottom and inside as well. He began incorporating his logo into the back of each piece and eliminated unsightly holes inside the ring. His look was bold, solid and unmistakably Michael B. While many top name designers manufacture their product overseas to cut costs and increase profits, Michael B. jewelry is manufactured in Studio City, California, where quality and service remain top priorities. Michaels sons Matthew, Brian, Michael and Arthur are poised to carry on the Michael B. legacy for generations to come. Awards: 1997 Town & Country Couture Conference Platinum Award 1998 Platinum Passion Design Competition Award Winner 2003 Town & Country Couture Conference Designer of the Year