Petra Class

Petra Class is a jewelry artist who combines European influences with a passion for the nature of California to create jewelry made from precious gemstones, diamonds, and gold. Class creates intricate, delicate, and sometimes web-like bezeled jewelry ranging from necklaces and brooches to earrings and rings.
Class, born in Germany, studied art history and philosophy at the University of Stuttgart and continued her education at Fachschule fuer Glas und Schmuck in Neugablonz where she learned goldsmithing and design. By 1987, Class opened a studio in Berlin where she worked until she moved to San Francisco in 1991 and founded her current jewelry design studio.

CA California Handmade: State of the Arts, Sandra Enterline, Diamond Web Necklace, 2012 (front). Petra, Class Gold and Lapis Brooch, 2011 (back)
Sandra Enterline, Diamond Web Necklace, 2012 (front). Petra, Class Gold and Lapis Brooch, 2011 (back)
Petra Class, Gold and Lapis Brooch, 2011
Petra Class, Gold and Lapis Brooch, 2011. German-trained Class takes a painterly approach to forming jewelry from gems and other precious stones. She rhythmically arranges raw forms and creates striking color and textural contrasts between elements. “Through my choice of colors and textures, { I } communicate a certain mood, an attitude towards life that in turn will be, I hope, sensed by whoever is looking at the piece…like an improvisational jazz melody, like an abstract landscape…”