Be kind to the earth & aware of our health

When we started our biz, we made a promise to become as eco conscious as we possibly could. Our definition of eco friendly is jewelry made from responsibility sourced materials in a studio that uses safe, healthy & environmentally friendly practices.

Jewelry making is an ancient craft & many of the techniques have been preformed for hundreds, even thousands of years. It’s important to bring awareness to the impact that some of these processes can have on the health of the jeweler as well as the environment. The more awareness we have, the better we can protect ourselves & our planet. Our journey started with earth kind packaging, but we felt called to do more. Right now, we’re diving into the research of Ethical Metalsmiths, the Eco Jewelry Handbook by Christine Dhein & Wellness For Makers to create a greener studio environment.

Our Goals

  • Provide a healthy workplace for ourselves while simultaneously minimizing the
    harmful effects that jewelry making can have on the environment

  • Use less toxic or less hazardous chemical alternatives during jewelry production

  • Offset shipping emissions by giving back to Earth focused causes

Our Accomplishments

  • Invested in equipment to recycle our scrap metal

  • Deconstructing old jewelry & reusing the materials for new projects

  • Partnering with EcoEnclose for all shipping needs

  • Using local or small businesses for packaging elements like our signature pressed flowers

  • Labels are printed on 50% recycled paper

Health & Safety

Truth is, the metalsmithing business comes with the inhalants of micro metal particles, exposure to chemicals, & large tanks of smoke producing gases. For longevity as a jeweler & to preserve the health of our planet, it’s important to create a secure work environment, impanelment safe bench practices, attune to our bodies needs & build awareness of the health risks involved with our craft. We can reducing our risk by minimizing exposure to harmful substances, substituting for less harmful alternatives, using personal protection equipment, installing adequate ventilation & limiting the time/frequency of exposure. No studio is perfect, but we strive to stay well, safe & protect mama earth while we’re at it.

Packaging

I'm proud to say that all of our packaging is reusable, recyclable & earth kind! We use 50% recycled paper to print our care card/labels & compostable plant-derived cello tape to seal them. Your BB jewelry will travel inside a kraft jewelry box with anti-tarnish poly fill. Sometimes we add an organic cotton bag or an anti-tarnish strip that you can reuse to store your jewelry in. We then wrap our boxes with vegan leather cord & add a hand pressed fern, rose bud & strip of birch bark from our backyard. We do not take bark from live trees, only fallen ones. We always say thank & never take more than we need. Your package will arrive in either a 100% recycled kraft padded mailer or a poly bubble mailer made with at least 32.6% recycled content which is fully recyclable! The padded poly bubble envelopes protect your jewels in transit, are moisture/puncture resistance & come with an extra peel-and-seal strip so customers can reuse them once before they’re recycled.

Materials

All of the metals that we purchase are ethically sourced & most are recycled metals. We travel to local or national shows to source gems from trusted stone vendors. We also enjoy shopping locally from our friends over at The Stone Stash. Reusing beads, stones or findings from old jewelry is something we throughly enjoy doing. We collect & breakdown materials from unwanted jewels that we’ve been saving (since high school), thrifted or were given to us by friends or customers.

Scrap Metal

As you can see by now, we hate being wasteful! That’s why investing in the right equipment to reuse our own silver scrap was top priority. We save & store all the clean silver we can find then make time in our schedule for a "silver pour day” & “rolling party”. On these days we bring out the big torch to metal down all the scrap silver, pour it into an ingot mold then roll it out to the desired gauge with a rolling mill. We are very grateful for this studio practice!

Supply Orders

Ordering supplies online tends to come wrapped in a lot of packaging! We keep every box, piece of bubble wrap or plastic bag that we can to reuse to ship large or wholesale orders. We even upcycle empty cigar boxes to reuse for tool/jewelry storage & specialized gift wrapping.

 

What You Can Do To Help

The easiest way to contribute would be to recycle or reuse the packaging materials & use the cotton bag to store your jewelry in. When you have broken or unwanted BB jewelry, never toss it in the trash. Instead, donate it, pass it along or send it back to our headquarters to have it repaired, reused or recycled properly. Thank you for interest & cooperation in continuing our zero waste efforts.

Earth Related Contributions

We believe in the little guys, the green guys & the guys willing to organize programs, charities & non-profits for the planet. And by “guys” we mean people. We believe in the people doing the work to help create or manage a safe sustainable world. Living & owning a small business through the pandemic made us realize the importance of conscious consumerism & to put our money where our values are. We’ve donated to the following organization & want to share their information with you. If you have the time, energy or funds please consider making your own contribution!

  • Ethical Metalsmiths - Inspiring responsible jewelry practices through education, connection & action.

  • DigDeep - A human rights nonprofit serving the 2.2 million+ Americans without running water

  • Green America - A national, not-for-profit, GA harnesses economic power—the strength of consumers, investors, businesses, & the marketplace—to create a socially just & environmentally sustainable society