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…

 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…

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…

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…

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.