Most mixed metal rings are made to a price. This one was made to a proportion.
Karl Lee began the Big Sur Classic in the 1970s, when other jewelers told him it was crazy to make something so difficult to make well. The design follows the golden mean. It honors tradition, and the pursuit of perfection in simplicity.
The ring is forged from two metals. A band of silver, bright and cool, and the stone held in 22k gold, warm and deep in color. Some Classics are 22k with 18k gold instead. The gem is always held in 22k gold, never in anything lesser.
There are no molds and there are no batches. Each ring is forged, filed, and finished at the bench, one at a time, and the metal is alloyed and milled in the studio before the work starts. A batch means the same ring made many times. This ring is made once.
Simple may look easy but it isn’t. Lasting may sound easy but it’s not. More than fifty years on, the Classic is still the ring this studio is known by, and it is still made the hard way, because the hard way is the design.
Alloyed, milled, forged by hand in studio. Same methods since 1964.
