California jeweler and inventor Trent West describes his work as an elegant expression of style that is worn daily (in many cases) by their owner. Whether it is one of his hand-fabricated designs, his TrewTungsten® wedding bands or his latest unique ring collection with diamond set tungsten carbide faceted stones, Trent loves pleasing his artistically discerning customers.

“Fine jewelry is the only personal investment one can make that may be worn and enjoyed on a daily basis”. The owner of a Trent West created ring can express their taste and individuality by wearing a “fine art” quality piece of jewelry on their hand. Trent is set apart from his peers by being a trendsetter and creating fine jewelry never before seen or available. This gives his clients a trendsetting adornment they can cherish for years.

In the beginning, at age sixteen, Trent apprenticed with his grandfather George Parr, at Parr Jewelers in Sierra Madre (his last of 9 stores from 1923 to 1968) as a lost wax jewelry designer and craftsman. His work then was more primitive but rich in creative design. He worked for other jewelers after George passed away for a couple of years and then built his first of four stores in Venice California from 1971 to 1981. This was a further continuation of a nearly 100-year family legacy of fine jewelry heritage in California.

Then he moved up to northern California and built his 2nd store in Capitola Village from 1982 to 1992. He studied for is gemological degrees with the credentials for appraising fine jewelry, gemstones, and diamonds. Then he began working his way up to making jewelry the Old World Way. Involving hand fabricating all of the individual pieces that make up one very special piece of fine jewelry. These techniques were learned by working with several European master jewelers over the course of several years. Next, he opened his 3rd and premier retail store at the Carmel Plaza, in Carmel California from 1992 to 1998. He also built his 4th store in Aptos California from 1994 to 2000.

In 1997 Trent began research and development on tungsten carbide wedding rings that could contain diamonds and precious metal inlay’s. Trent also started writing patents and since has been awarded 10 US patents on the rings and the process to make them. This is a remarkable achievement as the jewelry industry has had very few enforceable patents awarded due to the materials and processes to make super hard articles into wearable jewelry. Trent launched his bands in 2000 with the trade name TrewTungsten by Trent West, www.trewtungsten.com selling to retail stores in the US and Canada. Tungsten carbide bands are now making up roughly 30% of the men’s wedding band sales in the US.

Even though other alternative metals have been widely used for wedding bands the prior decades before, namely titanium and stainless steel, none had the super hard properties of his TrewTungsten bands. Those unique properties were mainly super hardness and a highly lustrous diamond aided, long-lasting finish. The main reason was due to the composition of this composite metal and the complicated and expensive method of manufacture.

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