News

Experiences (I): three different ways to move forward on the responsible jewellery journey

Making the move towards more responsible jewellery is an option open to brands of all kinds. Three different ways of approaching this journey have been outlined in this article.

Juia_1440x640

Alternative choices already exist: working with fair trade materials is a transformation that any business can make, either in a gradual manner, or more intensively, by integrating ethical practices in a single move.

Responsible jewellery is sometimes seen as an elitist concept, one solely within the reach of those firms whose clientele possess a high purchasing power. This however is an erroneous perception that clashes with the facts, as an immense variety of jewellers of all kinds have already chosen this path. Making jewellery with traceable and responsibly-sourced materials is a viable possibility for any type of brand, whatever their size; from start-ups to long-standing companies, from brands with a classical style, to those with a contemporary approach, regardless of their client profile.

The means of initiating this change are also diverse, and there is no exclusively-applicable road map. The process involves a simple matter of conviction and adjusting the changes to be made to the production processes and possibilities at the time. This evolution can be applied gradually, starting with small collections or applied to a special category of products, although may also be made in a more accelerated fashion. The first step might focus on one specific material or another, or even all the materials in a sweeping change in production strategy.

In this article we have put forward different examples of ethical jewellery practices and from three very different brands that are part of the ORIGEN – Gold for Future Collective. We look into each brands’ step forward with the use of responsible materials, which is a fundamental factor in our concept of this new jewellery, and investigate other aspects of sustainability in both workshop and company practices.

Marta Joieria Artística: a gradual transition experience that starts with gemstones

In 2011, Marta Rodríguez managed to transform a hobby into her profession and created the Marta Joieria Artística studio in Salt, Girona. It is always difficult to start from scratch. She says that it was thanks to the support of her entourage, the result of many years of birthday presents turned into tools and machinery for the workshop, that she was able to get started.

She started researching and discovered that it is also possible to implement changes in terms of sustainability and responsible consumption in jewellery. She learned about the Fairmined initiative and, with the guidance of another jeweller, became certified in 2019. It is nice to listen to Marta talking about the sorority among many of the women colleagues, which breaks with the opacity of a sector where cooperation and mutual help have been rare.

But once she was certified, it was very difficult to take the step to change metal. On the one hand, her investment capacity was limited. On the other hand, a large part of her work is personalised jewellery for which she reuses mainly family gold. At this point, she continued her research and, given the characteristics of her production, she found in gems an easier way to get started her journey towards responsible jewellery. Firstly, by introducing (ethical) gemstones in some personalised jewellery, and then also in jewellery collections, while raising awareness among customers. For almost three years now, all the gems she buys have been traceable and responsibly-sourced, except for the occasional commission.

Recently, she has presented her first pieces in Fairmined silver through two new collections that aim to symbolise the positive impact the certified metal has on the mining organisations that extract it and their communities. As a medium-term goal, she intends to use this fair-mined silver in all collections. In the case of wedding rings, the leap to Fairmined gold is on the horizon, although she still doubts about the implementation strategy. She currently prepares two budgets, but what about stopping giving the option to choose?

She has also introduced small changes in the workshop, in terms of waste management, recycling and energy consumption. One of the ongoing proposals is the recycling wheel for silver (in disuse from customers, such as mismatched earrings, and from her own leftovers) which she then takes to refine and reuses for certain pieces. She is planning to install solar panels in order to make the workshop self-sufficient. Moreover, in terms of practices in a  social dimension, she is crafting the solidarity bracelets, through which she contributes to different causes such as the Oncoswim, an open sea crossing organised by the Oncolliga Girona, and fundraising for new neonatal ICUs with the association Som Prematurs.

Juia Jewels: commitment to responsible gold from the very beginning

Juia Jewels is a young brand, born in 2018 in Barcelona. It was several years after Júlia Mirete finished her artistic jewellery studies at ESDA Llotja that she decided to create Juia. When she was a student, the film “Blood Diamond” had a great impact on her and questioned her chosen profession because of the injustices related to the origin of precious metals and stones.

So before taking any entrepreneurial steps, the Juia team had already started to look for responsible sourcing options that would allow them to make jewellery in a more ethically-positive way. This is how they came to discover Fairmined, and how ethical gold was to become their first choice from their launch. Right from the start they incorporated aspects such as sustainable packaging, ethical banking, energy consumption criteria (minimal use, efficient systems and using renewable energy sources), the prioritisation of nearby suppliers with values and minimally-contaminant products in their workshop. They organised company management with a horizontal structure that is as democratic as you can get, working as a cooperative, with decision-making being made on an equal basis, with each member having the same right to vote and to company profits.

Since then they have continued to seek and integrate new practices that have brought them ever-closer to our shared ideal, aiming to minimise the impact of their environmental footprint and the human rights violations that often occur in the supply chains of materials. Throughout this process they also looked into the origin of the stones they use in their designer and custom jewellery creations. Most of their gems are today traceable and responsibly-sourced. 

Another important aspect of their jewellery practices is that they only work with natural, untreated gems (treatments on gems to modify their colour or appearance can be environmentally aggressive and harmful to health). They also stand for “CrueltyFree” jewellery and refuse to use products of animal origin such as coral, pearls, tortoiseshell, ivory, etc.

Their main difficulty lies in the integration of silver. Wedding rings make up a significant volume of their orders and part of their clientele chooses silver for economic reasons. Switching to fair silver still scares them because it would imply a more remarkable price increase (at least double) than in the case of gold. 

So the next big challenge for the Juia team is focused on the use of responsibly-sourced silver. They will probably start with a new collection. Other areas of short-term focus include learning new sustainable techniques in the workshop, as well as continuing to cooperate and network. Their greatest wish for the future is that the concept of “responsible jewellery” will cease to exist (as, by default, all new jewellery will one day be responsibly-sourced).

Emilie Bliguet: the most radical change to fair metal, in a space of inter-cooperation and community

The work of a jeweller is a profoundly artisanal one, involving hours of dialogue between the materials and the creator. For Emilie Bliguet, in these moments of intimacy the artist’s hands listen to the stories that the metal reveals about its origins. With this idea in mind, one day, more than ten years ago, she decided to embark on the search for stories of a different kind.

She recalls that it was not so easy back then. The Oro Verde program was the only responsible metal-sourcing initiative, and her attempts to contact them were unsuccessful. Some time later however this project gave way to the creation of the international Fairtrade and Fairmined certification system for artisanal and small-scale mining. This was a major step forward. In 2014, she obtained the Fairmined licence and integrated responsibly-sourced gold and silver into her jewellery.

The move she made was far from a gradual transition, and more of a radical change. Soon, 80% of her production was made from fair trade and traceable metal. In terms of using metals, she states that making the change is much easier than it might otherwise seem. At least that’s how it was in her experience. She has also incorporated diamonds and coloured gemstones into her work, although in the area of gemstones she has found it more difficult to make progress in ethical terms. Half of the gems she uses are responsibly-sourced and she wants to improve this. She still has quite a bit of stock from a trip she made years ago to India and sometimes has trouble finding the type of stone she is looking for within the time frame for delivery of the piece.

In the El Born neighbourhood, in the heart of Barcelona, Emilie shares the Espai Micra studio with two other jewellers who hold the same values. Emilie believes that cooperation is one of the bases for promoting a more responsible jewellery industry. Together they look for suppliers, they carry out research and they test products and techniques with reduced environmental impact, and even study the small details in their workshop, in order to apply the most sustainable options: from cleaning products, to water filters, they reuse the packaging, restore furniture and rely on bicycle courier services. They have close ties with the local neighbourhood and are part of community initiatives that stimulate small local business and promote crafts. Three years ago, they obtained Biosphere certification, and this opened their eyes to new aspects, such as gender perspective and communication.

Communication is in fact one of Emilie’s biggest challenges. Her aim is to explain the stories behind her pieces with positive impact in a more prevalent and influential manner, she wants to explain why she chooses to work with responsibly-sourced materials, how this affects the price of her work, and, to contribute to generating critical awareness through active, honest and transformative communication.