Meet Ian Davidson

I design and make every piece that leaves this studio. There is no design team, no account manager, and no handoff. When you ask a question about your ring, you are asking the person who is making it.

I made my first ring in 1969 at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto, where I had enrolled to become a painter. That piece changed the plan. I finished a fine art degree at the Alberta College of Art in Calgary, then spent the next years at two houses that still set the standard: Silverhorn in Banff, and European Jewellers in Toronto.

In 1988 I came back to Calgary and opened Davidson Jewels. I have been here ever since — more than 35 years, and more than 3,000 custom rings.

Hand and machine, on purpose

The training is classical goldsmithing. The studio has used 3D CAD since 1989, long before it was normal. Every commission still goes through the same sequence: conversation, sketch, CAD, a resin prototype you can wear, then casting, setting, and finishing at the bench.

The resin print is the step most studios skip. You hold the ring. You try it on. Changes at that stage cost nothing. Formlabs and Additive-X have both written up the process; Avenue Calgary has covered the work.

What I will and will not make

I work only in 18k gold and platinum — white, yellow, rose, and our cedar gold alloy. I do not work in 14k. Heirloom pieces have to hold colour, weight, and a stone for decades of daily wear.

I source natural and lab-grown diamonds, sapphires, and other coloured stones to the brief. Centre diamonds come with a GIA or IGI report.

A lot of the work now is resetting family diamonds and crediting old gold toward a new piece. That is some of my favourite work.

I also curate Niessing, because a tension setting done properly is still one of the best ways to let a stone sit.

The studio

Davidson Jewels is on the 4th floor at 909 17 Avenue SW, in the Mount Royal Executive Centre. By appointment only. We moved here in July 2026.

You sit down with me. No sales floor, no commission, no one hovering.

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