View Bag  |  My Account

Store Locations

5496 College Avenue, Oakland, CA 94618  |  510.547.7000
1778 Fourth Street, Berkeley, CA 94710  |  510.528.7300

Michael Endlich, owner and founder of Pavé Fine Jewelry, is a national award winning jewelry designer — the winner of five AGTA Spectrum Awards in design and manufacturing over the past three years, the most prestigious jewelry competition in the United States.

Born and raised outside of Seattle, Washington, Michael happened upon jewelry making through a high school class in what became a life-changing experience. Blessed with a wonderful mentor who took his interests seriously, the mentor encouraged Michael to pursue jewelry making professionally. It was then that he also discovered the power jewelry can have to convey love and meaning. It made quite an impression on him to make original pieces of jewelry for both his mother and girlfriend. After high school, Michael relocated to California to pursue further studies in jewelry making through the College of Arts and Crafts where he studied with Alan Revere. It was Alan who first inspired him to think of jewelry as an art form.

Michael has worked in the jewelry industry for over 33 years. He started out as a polisher and subsequently apprenticed as a diamond setter. Early on he worked with a number of master jewelers, learning his craft while developing his own line of jewelry on the side. In 1983, Michael ventured out on his own and founded Pavé Fine Jewelry.

In terms of custom jewelry, a primary influence for Michael is the client's own story. By understanding what the client wishes to express and eliciting personal symbols and meanings, designer and client can co-create a form that best embodies the client's vision.

Michael's life-long passion for nature is also a powerful influence in his work and in his life. He has wonderful memories as a child spending time with his grandfather, who worked as a forest ranger in Washington. Michael and his brothers spent countless hours with him camping and fishing and developing a love of nature. Michael's mother, an avid rock collector, also transferred to him her appreciation of nature. Family and friends who know him best, joke that he can get as excited about an interesting rock found on the trail as an exquisite fine gemstone. Whether hiking in the mountains or desert or scuba diving on a coral reef, Michael remains amazed by nature's imagination to create such exquisite forms, patterns and colors. More specifically, he is interested in how these natural forms have been incorporated into man-made designs and artwork for thousands of years.

Michael has always had an artistic eye and rarely goes anywhere without his camera. He constantly makes studies of any intriguing pattern or delight that catches his interest, whether it is a line on the street, the shape of a leaf, or a moving landscape from a car. He is especially interested in the romance of forms, such as rusty tools where pattern and texture merge with a sense of time gone by and wonder at the hands that once held such tools.

During the past three decades, Michael has honed his design skills and eye for selecting exceptional gemstones, cultivating a distinctive artistic vision for Pavé. Michael is very proud of his entire team, who are committed to delivering the highest quality of aesthetic design, impeccable workmanship and customer service for Pavé's clients.