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Harriet Kelsall
23rd May 2008 16:36

Ethical Gemstones

 

I had an interesting chat with Mike, the managing director of one of our main gemstone suppliers the other day about ethics and their gemstones. It is something I've been doing with all our suppliers, as unless we know where our materials are coming from we can't offer concerned customers the information they need to make ethical choices. I was reassured to find that these issues are very important to them too - they want to do what they can.

As we already know, the issues are complex - where the politics are OK, the environmental impact may not be - or there may be human rights issues. It is impossible at the moment to guarantee every one of these will be OK for each gemstone, given the difficulty of tracing them down the supply chain, although thanks to the Kimberley Process we can guarantee we'll never be using conflict diamonds.

He only works with people he trusts will have nothing directly to do with child labour for example - and he is confident the same applies to those that they deal with...so we have at least 2 'trusted' positions back in the chain. However, before that it is impossible to follow and guarantee things. I was reassured though that the 'trust' chain at least does extend a little further than I feared.

What we all struggle with in the jewellery industry is the choice between buying only from westernized countries where we know the labour laws are up to scratch and rigorously enforced (although there is generally a higher environmental cost from heavily mechanized mining techniques) or conversely trying to find people who are doing a good job in less regulated countries. What we both keep coming back to is that there are people down the line who won't be able to eat if we don't keep buying gemstones from them. When you've travelled to some of these desperately poor places and met the people who depend on artisanal mining and the production of gemstones to live, it doesn’t seem so ethical to be only buying diamonds from Canada for example.

Compared to most of us Mike is an expert in small wars in distant lands, and said for example he is not buying coloured sapphires (except blues) in Sri Lanka at the moment as he can't find any sources he trusts to not be funding the Tamil Tigers. He's very dubious about Colombian Emeralds – in fact any gemstones coming from Colombia at the moment tend to have a somewhat murky history and are best avoided.

He started to list gemstones he was particularly confident in at the moment, and those at the top of his list were Thai sapphires, Thai rubies, tourmalines and aquamarines. It was very reassuring though that he was confident about a lot more than I feared. He also feels that the situation with pollution and chemicals in the gem industry is improving.

There are just starting to be Fair Trade certified gems available in small quantities and I hope I have convinced him that we have customers who would leap at the chance to buy them if he can supply them. It would answer a lot of questions for us, as part of the Fair Trade thing is helping people organize themselves into co-operatives and making positive change away from exploitative labour practices. It also means we don't have to make a choice between poor people eating and relatively rich people buying more machines.

I'm continuing to push our suppliers about these issues, and am taking an active role in the Council for Responsible Jewellery Practices to try and solve these issues, so that we can know the provenance of the gemstones we are sourcing and use this buying power for positive change worldwide.

If it is an issue that concerns you we'd love to talk to you about this, and will probably bend your ear off. Alice is our inhouse expert, and she'd love to talk to you about the best gems to fit both your design ideas and your ethical standards.

Harriet Kelsall
 
Alice Rochester
23rd May 2008 16:36

Elvish!!

 

We often get enquiries from customers who want some interesting ideas for what they could have engraved on a wedding ring. One of my favourites for the outside of a ring (as far as text goes, anyway) has got to be the people who have had elvish inscriptions as developed by Tolkein for the 'Lord of the Rings' books. The lettering is so beautiful, it has got a really ethereal quality to it:

One of our lovely customers even found this brilliant letter translator online, which I thought I should share with you all: http://tengwar.art.pl/tengwar/ott/start.php?l=en

You need to choose the PNG output format, type your message into the input box then press the transcribe button. (Thanks, Dave!)

More information about Elvish (including tips on pronunciation and an English:Elvish dictionary) can be found at this website http://www.arwen-undomiel.com/elvish.html

Alice Rochester
 
Kate Beard
23rd May 2008 16:35

Duck!!!

 

Being a company based in rural Hertfordshire countryside, http://www.hkjewellery.co.uk/web/page/showroom We are used to the everyday sounds and sights of working here, the horses walking past, the pheasants calling and we do expect the odd bit of wildlife working amongst us, a few of us have come face to face (literally) with the odd mouse and last year we even had a resident shrew in the office!

But this morning, as I parked my car in the car park at the front of the barn I noticed a speckled tail peeking out from one of the small shrubs planted in the car park, I looked closer and jumped as a loud hiss came from the bush followed by a very angry female duck, warning me not to go further! And behind her 5 beautiful white eggs laid in a little nest just behind the shrub.

Could you think of anything more perfect than working in amongst all of this? How lucky we all are indeed!

If you haven't already visited us yet come and have a look at our beautiful showroom - and now our famous duck – have a look at this map and come along http://www.hkjewellery.co.uk/web/page/showroommap but don’t forget to be extra careful in the car park!

Kate Beard
 

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  • Harriet Kelsall Jewellery Design, North Barn, Fairclough Hall Farm, Halls Green, Weston, Hertfordshire, SG4 7DP, England
    Phone: +44 (0)1462 790565 Fax: +44 (0)1462 790140 enquiries@hkjewellery.co.uk
  • Harriet Kelsall Jewellery Design, 6/7 Green Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB2 3JU, England.
    Phone: +44 (0)1223 461333 Fax: +44 (0)1223 365269 cambridge@hkjewellery.co.uk

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