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Harriet Kelsall
5th November 2011 12:17

Hazel's World of Joy earring give-away

 

You can also win a fab pair of chandelier style hematite and Swarovski crystal earrings here! http://hazelsworldofjoy.blogspot.com/2011/11/harriet-kelsall-jewellery-giveaway.html

Harriet

Harriet Kelsall
 
Harriet Kelsall
5th November 2011 12:04

Harriet Kelsall Jewellery Design achieve Responsible Jewellery Certificate

 

We are delighted to announce that we are the first UK Independent business to pass the Responsible Jewellery Council's (RJC) Certification.

The RJC certification process in simple terms is a process whereby you hold your jewellery business up to a series of ethical, human rights, social and environmental standards laid out in the documentation. If your business falls short, you fix it, until you feel you are ready to pass.

These standards include not only chain of custody stuff such as your procedures on training staff on conflict diamonds and ensuring you aren't using diamonds from outside the Kimberly process, but a broad range of other things such as whether you are fully complying with UK employment and health and safety law. Once complete you are independently audited and if successful receive your certification.

I thought long and hard about whether my business could afford the man hours to go through the process but I'm glad we did because we did find areas of the business that needed improving, we learnt a lot and we are now stronger for having done it. Actually I feel my business is much tidier and more ready for future growth now that we have been through the process too.

We were one of the first members of the RJC and I was always keen to be a part of it because most of the businesses involved are huge jewellery businesses and I wanted to make sure that smaller businesses who actually might be doing even better ethical things didn't get left behind.

The process of going through it all took us a quite a bit of work and time and at times it was hard and quite technical because the documentation is difficult to read and non UK specific but I wanted to be the first UK small independent to show that it can be done and isn't just for the "big boys". Furthermore as a result of us having achieved this, Simon Rianer the CEO of the British Jewellers Association (BJA) has said that once he has a few members keen to go through the certification that the BJA will then work on providing tools and guidelines to help them through it. So I am urging other small jewellery businesses to get in touch with the BJA and get the ball rolling so that we can all be more responsible companies.

The current backdrop of the jewellery industry right now makes it more important than ever for us jewelers to do what we can.

I have two overriding reasons for going through this process as follows:

Firstly, my business was one of the first 20 jewellers to launch Fairtrade gold back in February, and am delighted to be a part of such a brilliant thing. I also believe passionately that whilst Fairtrade gold is obviously fantastic, it isn't the full story and much more can be achieved ethically in the industry as a whole. I would hate it if companies stocked Fairtrade products and left it at that - so much more can and should be done in other areas of the industry. The RJC certification is part of this and there is more that we can and will do in the future too to gradually improve things wherever we can.

Secondly, I have heard mutterings that the RJC was set up by a few big businesses making themselves feel better about their horrible ethical histories - but I hope I have proved that this isn't the case and it genuinely is good for any business, big or small, to hold their ethical, human rights, social and environmental standards up for independent scrutiny, find areas that need improving (as we did) and then fix them.

Harriet

Harriet Kelsall
 
Harriet Kelsall
5th November 2011 10:28

New Purple label Christmas present collection

 

It is that time of year again where christmas is right around the corner and to help you along the way with your christmas shopping for your loved ones we now have our beautiful Christmas present collection on our purple label website.

Happy shopping everyone

Harriet

Harriet Kelsall
 
Rebecca Howarth
5th November 2011 09:46

Roadworks today!

 

Hi there

We have some roadworks on the way into Weston from the A1(M) today so there is a road diversion in place. There are yellow diversion signs everywhere, but basically you will need to drive towards Baldock centre, then turn right after the George IV pub towards Weston. Once you have gone up that windy lane and come out in Weston, turn right, then left (into Mill Lane). At the end of Mill lane turn left and then you are on the correct road to Halls Green...so you just keep going along there for about 2 miles and you will find our studio on the left.

See you later!

Rebecca Howarth
 

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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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