Ethical Statement

I love being able to tell my customers that their gemstones are ethically sourced. To know the country of origin, that the land around the mine was protected and the people were paid fairly makes the jewellery so much more precious!

I’m doing my best to reduce my environmental impact by sourcing metals and gemstones as responsibly as I can.

By recycling and reusing metals, stones and tools whenever I can and choosing recycled packaging I’m working towards making my jewellery as sustainable as possible.

I’m working on it - There’s always more I can do to lower my environmental impact, to educate myself and my customers about the impact of the jewellery industry.

It’s easy to put my head in the sand and not look into the potentially negative aspects of using precious materials, but the fact is that the mining of silver, gold and gemstones are some of the dirtiest, most harmful industries on the planet.

Even with the raised environmental awareness around the issues today, mining still causes a huge amount of pollution. The destructive practices often take a huge toll on communities and wildlife around the world.

Gemstones

Full disclosure

I bought lots of gemstones when travelling in India many years ago, when I wasn’t aware of the impact of gemstone mining, I also inherited a lovely collection of stones from my Grandmother - I cannot vouch for the provenance of these stones, and have no proof of where they originated.

I try to buy all my precious gems from a few trusted dealers who sell only responsibly sourced stones.

I often buy from Nineteen 48 a company based in the UK set up by my old friend Stuart Pool. They sell fully traceable coloured gemstones from small-scale mines and support charitable projects in Sri Lanka and Tanzania.

Moyo Gems is a responsible miner-to-market gemstone collaboration in East Africa (partnered with Nineteen 48), where the women who dig the gems from the earth receive on average 95% of the export value of their gemstones.

Ocean Diamonds sell natural diamonds retrieved by divers from the coastline around South Africa with minimal disruption to the sea bed. Each diamond comes with a with a Certificate of Provenance stating its origin.

Fairtrade Gems is a well established supplier of ethical and traceable coloured gemstones. . .

Recycled, Repurposed Preloved Gems - I often get asked to use heirloom stones.


Increasingly people have been asking me to reset their inherited gemstones into my designs. It’s often a sentimental ring, given to them many years ago, that no longer fits, the gold has worn thin, or the design just isn’t their cup of tea. It's always rewarding to give new life to old worn out jewellery and make pieces that are really going to be treasured.

Metals

Recycled or Fairtrade?

Nearly all the gold and silver I’ve used in recent years has been recycled. My castings, my chains and findings are almost completely made from reused refined metals.

There is some debate in the industry about whether this is indeed best practice. Recycling is of course a sensible thing to do but it doesn’t stop the existing mines from polluting, or new mines from starting.

While there’s gold in the earth, there’ll be people wanting to dig it up and make money from it. That’s where Fairtrade gold comes in . . .

Benefits of Fairtrade

I’ll write more on this soon.

Packaging

I recycle and reuse materials whenever I can. I prefer reused and recycled packaging and shipping materials. this isn’t always easy - I’m still on the lookout for an alternative to the foam inserts in my boxes - do let me know if you have any ideas!