Category: Eco Friendly Jewelry

Preserving the Past – Adding a Sleeve to Great-Grandmother’s Wedding Band

Precious metals are recycled time and again. When a jewelry piece is melted down, the material value remains but the history attached to the piece is lost forever. Sometimes retaining the sentimental value is more important than gaining the value of the raw materials.

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Easing into Green

When you sell products mined from the earth, it’s not always easy to keep your hands clean on environmental issues. Some jewelers have already found their green grooves, but for others, even simple steps can go a long way. By Michelle Graff – May 22, 2008 – New York – From housewares to automotives, industries…

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Gold Goes Green

Special Advertising Supplement to Modern Jeweler by Larry Fell In 2008, green is the word. We’re buying more hybrids and fewer Hummers. We’re reducing, reusing, recycling, and composting. We’re drinking fair trade coffee and organic microbrews. Forget paper or plastic. Supermarkets are BYOB (Bring Your Own Bag). Nearly every industry has been hit by green…

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Making a Difference From Mine to Market

 Marc Choyt of Reflective Images, Santa Fe, New Mexico, a jewelry retailer and manufacturer of designer jewelry, attended the first Madison Dialogue Ethical Jewelry Summit on October 25 and 26, 2007, at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. Choyt is the author of a blog on fair trade issues at www.fairjewelry.org. He reports here on…

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The Open Source Initiative

Interview with Mike Angenent on issues with traceable melee diamonds and sapphires from Madagascar MC: First, explain how you got involved in “Open Source.” What’s your personal background and what was the inspiration behind the project? MA: Well, I am a goldsmith, gemologist, diamantair by profession and was always fascinated by the fact that you…

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A Small Success Model for Gem Trade in Africa

Guy Clutterbuck, who was recently featured in the GIA Winter Loop Magazine, has been sourcing gemstones in Africa and around the world for decades. His relationships with small scale miners, based on trust, are highly unusual and stand in contrast to the generally toxic relationship between the small scale miners and their typical buyer. Read…

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The Challenges and Opportunities in Supplying Fair Trade Gemstones

The issue of fair trade gemstones is complex and difficult to sort out. What I will outline here are three different scenarios that offer possibilities for more transparent, ethical sourcing of fair trade gemstones from artisan miners.

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Sourcing Ethically Mined and Cut Diamonds

Everyone involved in profiting from diamonds, from NGOs who raise the blood diamond issue to their donors, DeBeers, to the average jeweler, markets to a target audience. In the retail sector, issues of quality and price are in the forefront and information on the ―4 Cs is easily available.

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Ethical Jewelry Issues: Introduction

Jewelry marketing is nearly always targeted to appeal to your emotions. But the supply chain that produces your piece, from mine to market, is driven by an entirely different set of values. Precious metal, gem stones and manufacturing are highly commoditized, just like oil or lumber.

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The Real Price of Gold

from National Geographic Magazine Like many of his Inca ancestors, Juan Apaza is possessed by gold. Descending into an icy tunnel 17,000 feet up in the Peruvian Andes, the 44-year-old miner stuffs a wad of coca leaves into his mouth to brace himself for the inevitable hunger and fatigue. For 30 days each month Apaza…

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