I’d like to add another category, SOURCE.

My values (the things I’m personally concerned about) are: Ethical & Responsible Sourcing, Sustainability and Recycling, Fair Trade, Veganism and making sure we take care of the Environment.

Diamonds (and other gemstones) can sometimes be one or two of the above, but not usually all of these things at once.  Diamonds are “tricky”, there is no perfect way to source diamonds at the moment.

If you want a natural diamond, then in my opinion, it must be traceable.  The best option I have found so far is the Canadian diamonds. We know where they come from, they can be traced and the mines have some of the highest standards around health and safety and environment.  That said, these mines are still a huge hole in the ground in formerly pristine areas. The image below is of the Ekati Diamond Mine in Canada.

A guarantee that a diamond is conflict free is not worth the paper it’s written on. If you want to know more, go here.

If you want a laboratory diamond, then you want one from the UK – many lab diamonds come from China and Russia.   There are companies in the USA, but then you need to add in the air miles 🙂  There are only two companies creating lab diamonds in the UK (Skymined and Bring Diamonds) and neither offers melee (small diamonds that you’d use in a halo for instance). So these are diamonds generally for people with larger budgets.

If you need small diamonds, your options are natural Canadian or recycled.  Recycled diamonds are likely to be relatively (or very) modern.  If you want recycled diamonds, then you have to be reasonably flexible about the 4 C’s.  You need to appreciate that there is no traceability whatsoever, BUT, it’s always more sustainable and uses less energy, to reuse what we already have.

If you want a bigger diamond, over half a carat, then you’ll also have the option of antique diamonds.  These are old cuts, not at all like modern brilliant cuts, sometimes rose cuts, and they are very beautiful. Again, you’ll need to be flexible about colour, cut, carat and clarity.  Antique diamonds are not practical where you want a very precise halo of small stones as they won’t be all the same size and they’re unlikely to be perfectly round.  No antique diamond is traceable.

Artisan mined diamonds – not currently available although there are several schemes trying to do this.

Another alternative is to use white sapphires from artisan mines in Sri Lanka.  They’re mined in a very low intensity way, are fairly traded, traceable and support local communities.

That’s it in a nutshell, hope this is helpful

Lisa

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What do you know about diamonds? They’re made of carbon, formed under under huge pressure and heat in the earths crust. They’re hard, often used as cutting or polishing tools in industry, they occur naturally as crystals, they’re all probably at least a billion years old.

Ethical, traceable diamonds are in some respects, dificult to find. Most diamonds these days come from Africa, Russia, Australia and Canada. Obviously diamonds are a lucrative business, one that is interesting to warlords, dodgy government officials, or anyone who’d happily exploit another person for for ill gotten gain – whether that’s kids down mines, paying miners peanuts, dangerous working environments or quite literally stealing diamonds at gunpoint. A far cry from the glittering aray of jewels in the jewellery store.

I have no perfect fix for you, but there are options when you buy from me. These are:

Recycled diamonds – saved from old jewellery, repolished and resold. Pro’s – no mining, recycling Con’s – do you mind your diamond having been preloved? Not traceable – may not originally have come from an ethical source.

Laboratory created diamonds: made from Carbon exactly the same as natural diamonds, heat and pressure recreated in the lab. Pro’s – no mining, traceable, ethical. Con’s – not mined so not natural. Less environmental impact than natural diamonds but does have some impacts. More on another post.

Natural traceable stones from De Beers/Rio Tinto. Pro’s – traceable, some of the highest standards of health, safety and environment in the industry. Has helped countries like Botswana to grow. Con’s – Huge mines, huge company/market domination, can potentially put local artisan miners out of business. https://www.debeersgroup.com/world-of-diamonds/from-earth-to-heirloom

A few more articles you might want to have a look at:

“The Diamonds are Forever” slogan – you can thank DeBeers for that. And the two months salary on an engagement ring… that’s also DeBeers https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-27371208

Coloured diamonds were never seen as desirable, but when coloured diamonds were found in the Argyll mine, Rio Tinto created a marketing campaign to make them so. https://www.riotinto.com/ourcommitment/spotlight-18130_20247.aspx

DeBeers has always been against laboratory created diamonds… up until recently, where it has now started to sell it’s own. Some fear that DeBeers are going to artificially lower the price of lab created diamonds to the point that it puts it’s now competitors out of business, DeBeers says not. https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/consumer/lab-made-diamonds-for-less-jeweller-de-beers-plan-worries-rivals

But whether they’ve decided to do it because of customer demand, or because they’re running out of diamonds to mine, DeBeers are now selling both natural and laboratory diamonds. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/7633155/Diamonds-are-running-out-says-De-Beers.html

Ok, that’s enough from me, hope you enjoyed this tour around diamonds. If you’re looking for a piece of diamond jewellery and you’d like a chat about options please get in touch. Let me know what you think in the comments (if only so I know you’re reading). Is there anybody out thereeeeeee?

If you’ve just stumbled upon this (poor you) feel free to subscribe below 🙂

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In my last post, I said I’d revisit the whole thing about nothing ever being truly cheap and how someone has to pay. Whether that’s buying something that falls apart 6 months later and has to be replaced, or cheap fashion that costs the environment, or children working in factories for a pittance so we can buy things cheaper in the West.

Consumerism and advertising have created an obsession in people to have the next big thing, the new car, the bigger house, the latest gadget, or this seasons fashion must have. Things aren’t built to last, because companies don’t want them to last, they want you to throw them away and buy the latest model. They manufacture abroad where it’s cheaper and where profit margins are higher. Goods are mass produced and made of cheap materials like plastic. Who pays? The environment, wildlife, the people working in the factories under poor conditions and the consumer, who gets a poor quality product, albeit a cheap one.

If you’re interested in finding out more about fast fashion and how it affects the environment, check out this piece on Stacey Dooley’s documentary, “Fashion’s Dirty Secrets” https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/5a1a43b5-cbae-4a42-8271-48f53b63bd07

Like everything, we have a choice and we can vote with our £’s. I don’t buy much, but when I do, I’d rather buy things that will last. Clothing that I’ll wear and wear and wear. Things made by hand that I’ll perhaps only buy once or twice in my lifetime. We can all have things repaired (a new zip on that coat rather than a new coat), recycle or give things away to someone who can use them, we can upcycle things with a lick of paint, buy furniture at auction (great fun, give it a go), or give the charity shops a whirl.

So how does this all apply to jewellery I hear you ask? I chose to work in recycled and Fairmined metal, even though it’s a bit trickier and more time consuming. Recycled metal doesn’t entail mining and therefore minimises further damage to the environment. Fairmined supports miners in some of the poorest parts of the world, to earn a living, whilst paying them a fair price for their gold and helping them to raise health, safety and environmental standards in their mines.

It does cost a bit more, systems have to be put in place to monitor and audit the process. It’s not the cheapest or quickest way to do things, but for me, worth paying a bit more for.

The norm for a buyer purchasing rough diamonds and gemstones, is to buy from lots of different miners to create parcels of the same quality. They’ll go through the cutting shops and be sold again, before reaching the final gemstone dealer. By the time they get to the jewellers shop, no one really knows where they came from.

The only way to know if your gemstone or diamond is ethical is to know where it comes from and track it all the way from the miner to the consumer. These are known as traceable stones. It’s expensive to track single stones, to monitor conditions in the mines and the cutting shops. It costs money to improve health and safety, to pay decent wages, to safeguard the environment, to only employ adults and to give back to the community in terms of schools, roads, infrastructure or whatever else their needs might be.

When you buy a piece of jewellery that’s sourced in this way, you can choose to have it made in a way that mirrors your own personal beliefs. If you’d like to support artisan miners, working hard to improve life for their community, we can use Fairmined metal. If you’d like to avoid the impact of mining, choose recycled metal and lab created or recycled stones and diamonds. If you’d like to support a mine that’s ethical and sponsors an orphanage in Tanzania, we can do that too.

Beautiful jewellery, with the feel good factor.

What’s most important to you? Let me know in the comments below and if you haven’t already signed up, please subscribe below.

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