Karl Stittgen (1930-2023)

Karl Stittgen was a Canadian jewelry designer. He was born in Germany and moved to Vancouver, BC in 1952, where he established himself as a leading Canadian jeweler. Stittgen began his career as a watchmaker and jeweler and quickly built an international reputation as a goldsmith and artist. He opened stores in Calgary, San Francisco and New York.

Inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright, Stittgen pursued architecture and interior design as well. He received a Fellowship at Wright’s Taliesin West in 1961. In 1974 Stittgen took a break from jewelry to focus on interior design, only to return to goldsmithing in 1984. In 2009, Karl Stittgen was honored with the Creative Achievement Award of Distinction in Vancouver. Stittgen was selected for his “profound and lasting impact on applied art and design in British Columbia. Stittgen’s work is about juxtapositions. Inspired by nature, he also looked to architecture as a major inspiration. Stittgen’s style is quiet, diverse, often akin to his contemporaries in the modernist jewelry world. He has centered large stones in textured or plain gold. His work may be recognized by its “molten” gold settings; and also for their organic and free-form designs.