A student of engineering and art at the University of Washington, Robert Bruce Bielka discovered his love for jewelry in 1971 and began a long apprenticeship as a bench jeweler and jewelry designer, moving in 1975 to work for Cartier, New York. In 1979 Bielka founded his own jewelry design and manufacturing firm in New York incorporating as Bielka, Inc. in 1981. He was soon selling his one-of-a-kind show pieces to jewelers such as Mikimoto, Tiffany & Co., Van Cleef & Arpels, Harry Winston, Gubelin, Chaumet and Neiman Marcus where he has become a featured designer.

In 1991 he began working with Asprey in New York where he created the basis for the Asprey Sunflower collection inspired by his successful sunflower earrings. He is an inventor holding patents covering the articulation of his whimsical animal jewelry (of which his jeweled teddy bears are best known) and his innovative connections for his calibré-set bracelets.