Ethical Jewelry

I believe that it is critically important in this day and age to be as aware as possible of the impact that our choices make on the well being of fellow humans and the larger environment. We live in a time when humans have a great capacity to change the world in which we live, on a greater scale than is fully comprehensible, and these changes in this industrialized culture of consumerism are, sadly, often made by choosing profit over people, enterprise over environment.

As a jeweler of conscience, I am committed to making choices that reflect my personal ethic. I believe that the earth and it’s peoples are more important than the temporal satisfaction that consumerism has taught us is the only way to fulfillment. At the same time I believe that art and aesthetic are not only deeply important, but intrinsic to our very nature. We as humans become more fully ourselves when we are allowed expression. So my commitments are as follows:

• Any silver or gold that I use in my work is recycled. This reduces the need for new mine development, limits the production needs of current mining operations and greatly reduces the environmental impact of the metals industry.

• Any new gemstones I use in my work come from sources that employ ethical and Fairtrade standards. (While there is currently no-third party verification system to certify an ethical and responsible supply for newly mined gems, there are companies that have been implementing responsibility practices for a long while. These are the companies I seek out as sources for materials.) *To be fully transparent, I do have some stones in my stock that I had purchased before I became fully aware of how atrocious the gem trade can be and I do not know the practices employed to get them to me.... I do use these stones in my work but will purchase no new stones that do not come from responsible sourcing.

• Reduction of the amount of waste and toxicity of my profession by using non-toxic or minimally toxic chemicals and to re-use or recycle any metal scrap from production.

Things to consider

• In large-scale mining of gold, 20 tons of waste rock are produced to mine the material needed to make a single gold ring. (No Dirty Gold Campaign, 2001)

• 1,400 metric tons of mercury were used in artisanal mining in 2011 (more than any other industry) emitting 1,000 metric tons of inorganic mercury per year. (Telmer, KH; Veiga, MM, 2009)

• Gemstone cutters in India (one of the primary locations that gemstone cutting occurs, supplying much of the industry world wide for gem cutting) are paid from 17 to 33 cents per hour and 30% will die of silicosis because of exposure to silica dust. Silicosis is 100% preventable with proper occupational safeguards. (The National Labor Committee, 2010)

• 1.5 million ASM (artisanal small scale mining) miners in Africa and South America dig for long hours, often in stagnant water which breeds insects and disease, many for less than one US dollar per day. (Diamond Development Initiative, 2007-2018)

• The average diamond in an engagement ring is the product of the removal and processing of 200 to 400 million times its volume of rock. (USGS Survey, 1997)