| Dave Burchett
Dave Burchett started his career in jewelry design and gem design at Fairview High school in Boulder Colorado. The school had a new, state of the art facility that had excellent programs in both jewelry and lapidary arts. After spending many extra hours in the school’s studios, he got his first job cutting turquoise and coral cabochons for a commercial gem supplier. Thousands of stones later he realized he needed to know more about the gems he was working with every day.
In 1981 he received his degree in Geology from the University of Colorado. Dave’s search for great gems has taken him to many great locals, including the Nepal /China border where he was a consultant in an attempt to locate the lost pink tourmaline mines of the Dowager Princesses of Imperial China.
In 1983 He opened X-tal Inc. to import and sell gems and minerals. Shortly thereafter he added Jewelry to his inventory and then jewelry/Lapidary instruction, teaching others to produce jewelry designed from the gemstone to finished product. He opened Topaz Gem & Mineral in downtown Boulder specializing in gems, minerals and jewelry, and ran the business until he sold the company in 1999. During this time, Dave’s work was profiled in a number of newspapers and magazines including Lapidary Journal and the Denver Post.
In 1999 opened a design studio to produce jewelry for select galleries and clients around the country. He also started to sell excess gems and jewelry with a new company called Ebay. Soon his life was consumed with the world of internet auctions. In a very short time, he was closing over 150 auctions a week and people were coming to him for advice on this new way to market products. Dave Co-authored one of the first how-to books on Ebay, How to Sell on Ebay.
Through his entire career, photography has been a passion. His photography work has included commercial product photography for print and the internet, fine art and figure photography and thousands of photos for Ebay auctions. Along with his love of photography, Dave has collected about every type of camera. His collection includes cameras from the 1890’s up to the most current digital equipment.
Today you are more likely to find Dave fly fishing or out with his cameras than behind the jewelers’ bench but, from time to time an idea pops into his head and as they say in the lapidary business…its back to the old grind stone.
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