#-@/~ The green way to combat stress! %=*^`

Stress is one of those unknown qualities which can’t be measured or seen. It can be induced by many factors and it affects people in different ways.

Today Opulent Ethics had a bit of a wake-up call and realised how stressed we have been under the pressure of designing our latest range.

So, we gave ourselves a much needed talking to and started to dream about how we would relax and unwind if we had the money, energy and, most of all, the time. So this is our list of Opulent Ethics’ 5 green ways to combat stress:

1.    Organic food and wine



Organic food taste so much better



We are all becoming more aware of the benefits of eating organic produce and with sites like aboutorganics.co.uk it couldn’t be easier. This is your one stop shop for all things organic; restaurants, home delivery, suppliers of organic meats, dairy products, vegetables and even wines and beers. This site caters for all tastes as well as budgets.

2.    An eco-friendly bed



The bed of your dreams



Made from reclaimed UK wood, these beds are hand-made in eat.sleep.live’s local workshop. And it doesn’t end there either...you can top your reclaimed wood bed with a natural, organic, chemical free, eco-friendly mattress. Talk about preparing for a good nights sleep. 

3.    A fun day of craft

The impressive CAT facilities

The Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) in Wales runs courses in craft, sustainability, environmental issues, green technology and everything you need to live more greenly. The centre already uses new, environmental technologies to run all its buildings. So if your idea of relaxation is to get your hands dirty making something then this is the place for you.

4.    Spa remedies

Relax in Titanic Spa's beautiful facilities

The Titanic Spa is the UK’s first eco-friendly spa, Set in West Yorkshire it offers a fabulous range of treatments including the Scandinavian-inspired Heat Experience which uses temperature to aid your relaxation. The Titanic offers day and weekend experiences for the totally stressed.

5.    Eco-retreats

Responsible Tourism with a beautiful view

And the best way to relax? Leave the country and all that work stress behind and explore some of the most amazing destinations in the world without impacting on the environment. Companies such as Responsible Travel can help you find the right holiday for you (luxury, responsible tourism, late availability, exploration tours) whilst improving the lives and environments of the countries that you visit. The only thing holding you back is whether you can afford to take that much time off work? Go on....

And if all that doesn’t help you relax then nothing will!

That’s all for now....

Opulent Ethics’ wonderful wire erosion update

We have previously talked about our use of wire erosion during the making of our latest designs. And now we have just received back our wired eroded pieces for our pomanders. And it was so easy to do....

Opulent Ethics started by drawing up our pomander pieces using CAD software in order to get everything precise and exact.



Pomander pieces drawn in Rhino CAD software



Then the designs were transferred into CorelDraw before being sent to R F Bevan for cutting.



Pomander pieces in CorelDraw for wire eroding



A few queries and changes had to be made to the designs so that the machine at Bevan cut the pieces correctly.

And then the finished, perfectly cut, exact pieces were returned for us to complete the design with.

Finished wire eroded pieces

Hey presto!

That’s all for now....

Will “Social-Media” ever beat a trip down the high street?

Opulent Ethics were recently reading a Professional Jeweller article on how Jewellery Shops are loosing out to on-line brands who sell directly to the public and it got us thinking about the way that consumers shop these days.

The Great British High Street

Since starting, Opulent Ethics have begun this blog, constructed a website and registered on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and sometimes we find that we spend all of our time logging into (and forgetting passwords of) different sites rather than sitting at the bench making up our designs.

But is “social media” all it promises to be or are there better ways out there to contact and build relationships with your client base? We know, as consumers ourselves, that on-line shopping is taking over from spending Saturday browsing around town. There is nothing easier than plonking on the settee in any old clothes with the TV on in the background and a cup of tea in one hand to look at the latest fashions but can this ever replace seeing an item in front of you?

For things like shoes and certain clothes we believe that you can’t beat going to a shop and trying a few things on. Certain items never look how you expect them to but with jewellery this may not be the case.

With the type of jewellery that Opulent Ethics produce everyone knows what silver or gold looks like and most consumers have a good imagination for the types of stones that we use so we think that it may be possible to successfully market our products without much trouble.

If the pieces that you are buying are brightly coloured or have specialised features such as movement though this may be more problematic as it is harder to visualise.

So how do you build a brand which people want to buy into on-line then without having stock in any shops? Well, if you find out the answer to that question please let us know! Opulent Ethics hope to build a brand which is renowned for quality, beautiful products which are ethically sourced and do more good than non-ethical jewellery but in order to do that we have to establish a name for ourselves.

And this is where a presence in shops and galleries and established on-line retailers comes in. We are of the opinion that we can build the Opulent Ethics brand up to a certain point with our current on-line presence but that there are limits to this. And this is why we hope, over the summer, to have some of our products for sale with other retailers as well as on the Opulent Ethics website.

It’s definitely something to think about!

For the full Professional Jeweller article click here.

That’s all for now....

Is the latest Government idea making an ass(ay) out of Hallmarking?

For over 770 years now the UK has used hallmarking as a safety net for jewellery and silversmithing products, The service is offered by 4 Assay Offices in the UK (Edinburgh, Birmingham, Sheffield and London) and ensures that legal standards are met and adhered to.

Hallmarking

Other services offered by these Assay Offices include standard and laser hallmarking of many precious metals, analytical testing of jewellery to ensure they comply with current nickel and mercury legislation, measuring the thickness of plating, the assessment of bullion samples, durability and tarnish testing, environmental analysis and medical research to name but a few, and all this has made them an integral part of the UK jewellery industry.

The Coalition Government are currently trying to cut down on the amount of red tape that retail businesses have to go through. Under this review Hallmarking has been highlighted as one such area which could be removed. As it currently stands, every regulation which has been questioned will be abolished if no objection is raised before the deadline on May 5^th.

Outside of the UK our jewellery is held in such high regard because buyers know the standards our jewellery and silver products have to reach in order to be hallmarked. The Assay Offices are careful to monitor and adapt to legislation and they also change in light of public opinion. This was shown most recently with the new Fairtrade and Fairmined gold hallmark becoming available in conjunction with the Assay Office.

If hallmarking were to disappear this would open the UK jewellery industry to the possibility of imitation or lower quality pieces flooding the market. No longer would items be analysed and certified as containing the required and established levels of metals. In theory, anything could be used. And for those of us who are unable to tell the difference between 9 and 18 carat gold by eye, who knows what we will be buying?

In the short time since the Government suggested scrapping hallmarking there has been a huge outcry from all areas of the jewellery industry and beyond, calling for hallmarking to be left or only altered slightly.

So far, the Birmingham Assay Office have said that they “...believe it is imperative to the British consumer for the current and future UK jewellery industry to maintain hallmarking as a statutory independent service”. And others who support this sentiment include The Goldsmiths Company, F Hinds, Professional Jeweller, Retail Jeweller, Betts Metal Sales and Opulent Ethics, to name but a few, and these have been joined by 2633 other comments which have all been left on the Governments Red Tape Challenge website so far. And they all seem to be saying pretty much the same thing; “Keep the hallmark”.

If you wish to add your comments to the debate or believe that the hallmark is important enough to save please go to the Red Tape Challenge website and leave your thoughts. This is what the Government will be reviewing prior to making their final decision.

And it doesn’t just have to be your opinion on why the hallmarking system should be saved. If there are legislative parts of the process which you think could work better or be altered then put that down too. But please make sure that you do visit the site as, without your voice this could be the end of an important British jewellery standard.

That’s all for now....

From Caffeine-Aided-Design to Computer-Aided-Design

We’ve all done it; put the kettle on to help us to do another couple of hours of design in the run up to a deadline. When the pressure is on and everything has to fit and be precise whilst retaining the aesthetics of a piece you can find yourself tied up in all sorts of design knots.

This is where Opulent Ethics are finding themselves but luckily we undertook some training in four of the best jewellery CAD software packages last year and we have been able to put them to good use.

Whilst CAD has been around for quite a few years throughout various industries including the aeronautical, medical and engineering industries and is even used for making shoes, for speeding up the design process and helping us to be ethical this skill has been a god-send.

As you may know, Opulent Ethics have recently been designing a range of pomanders which will have numerous moving parts. In order to make assembly of the pomanders as quick as possible we have tried to standardise certain sections of the pomanders for use throughout the range, and make the designs precise and easy to piece together during assembly.



Pomander pieces drawn in Rhino



For these designs, CAD has been an indispensible tool as it has allowed us to visualise the range in 3-dimensions, check that the movements appear to be working and alter tolerances much quicker and much more precisely than if we were attempting to make or sketch designs by hand. And there is always the safety net UNDO button for when things don’t go quite to plan.



The biggest advantage to an ethical jeweller has to be the waste reduction though. Imagine producing your piece of jewellery by hand; there is scrap and waste material at every step whereas, with CAD, your only waste is the sprue which is attached to a model in order to cast it. And this can be recycled in future castings too.

Waste reduction is one of the two main points for our pomander brief and CAD has proved itself as the perfect antidote to throw away materials. We aren’t CAD’ing the entire pomanders but those pieces which are being drawn in CAD include the technical and moving sections which, during production, would be most difficult to construct exactly and would have the largest percentage of waste as pieces would be constantly altered to fit tolerances.

And then of course, there are all the nifty tools and wizards which allow even the most computer illiterate of us to produce beautiful creations.

But it isn’t all positive; the massive increase in the use of CAD is a major factor in the decline of many other traditional hand skills and this is being noticed throughout the jewellery industry.

It has been observed in recent years that new students are being taught the latest technologies in place of hand skills and the latter are, therefore, in decline. These skills are historical and create beautiful pieces and as these are what initially attracted us all to jewellery in the first place they shouldn’t be allowed to diminish in importance.

With the recession still being felt, many trends are now leaning away from newer, more expensive technologies and concentrating more on hand crafted items. A resurgence in hand crafts and techniques is happening and we hope it will help bring back those skills which are dying out.

Opulent Ethics can’t help but think that a happy medium needs to be found with the beauty and individuality of handmade pieces being combined with the precision and reduced waste of newer technologies. Here’s hoping that Opulent Ethics manage to find that balance through our pomanders.

That’s all for now....

Opulent Ethics or sceptical ethics?

Opulent Ethics were on the train to London recently and got talking with another traveller. As we were talking about Opulent Ethics we were asked whether the ethics were something that we actually practised or whether we used ethics as a marketing tactic.

Opulent Ethics

Whilst this is not the first time that we have been asked about or had to explain our ethical choices it really got us thinking this time. If there are so many companies out there which make this a necessary question then we really have our work cut out convincing our customers and peers that we are the real deal.

So how are we intending to do this? We have always been a great believer in the saying “honesty is the best policy” and transparency is an integral part of Opulent Ethics’ business. We have been very lucky in that we were ethically minded before we began Opulent Ethics. For us, this has meant that all of our business deals have been made from an ethical stand point and we do not compromise on those beliefs.

Having to justify our decisions at every step has made us deeply consider everything we do so that we back each decision fully. We never take on anything lightly and can justify our choices and beliefs so that we ensure that they fit within our ethical policy. We also ensure that all these choices and decisions are carried out in every part of our day to day business to the best of our ability.

It has always been Opulent Ethics’ intention to bring ethical jewellery more into the mainstream and to reach the day when the general public do not have to ask what is meant by ethical jewellery here’s hoping that that day is just around the corner.

That’s all for now....

Precious materials in jewellery; no longer gold & diamonds

All of Opulent Ethics’ time recently has been spent on the designs for our new range of pomanders which will be completed in the next few months. We have already written about the pomanders at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London which have inspired us and some of the processes that we are intending to use in the production of the pomanders.

We are now considering the materials which will reside within the pomanders. Part of our brief is to challenge the idea of “preciousness”. Within the jewellery industry precious materials include gold, the higher the carat the better, platinum, palladium, diamonds and gem stones. Pieces of jewellery made using these materials can have a very large price tag.

Opulent Ethics have always chosen ethically sourced materials over large scale mined materials but for this range we decided to push the boundaries of what is precious in jewellery further.

Having watched Kate Humble on her recent TV show about the Spice Trail, Opulent Ethics were left amazed at the history and origins of everyday spices such as nutmeg, vanilla and cinnamon. We all know that saffron is an expensive ingredient but we here at Opulent Ethics did not know about the back-breaking work and hours involved in growing, harvesting and preparing saffron and other such exotic spices for sale.



....cloves....



Kate Humble with nutmeg....

                 



....and cinammon



....saffron....



We also didn’t realise that empires had been built, wars fought and communities decimated over the west’s attempted possession of these spices. The more we watched Kate Humble working with local communities, using traditional techniques and just generally smiling her way along the spice trail, the more we got thinking about how these materials are as precious as gold and diamonds, just in a different way.

These materials also tie-in nicely with pomanders as these were originally made to store 4 – 6 strong smelling ingredients such as cloves, rose petals, ambergris and scented salves, as it was believed that these would ward off disease and keep the wearer healthy.

Opulent Ethics went off and did a bit of research into these spices and other food stuffs and alternative precious materials such as cotton and found that the prices of certain food groups have been rising for years. In 2008 the average price of food across all food groups rose by 8.3% in 8 months. This meant that, on average, a family of 4 could expect to pay an extra £750 per year on their food bill.

Whilst anything from poor harvest to natural disaster to war can affect the price of foodstuffs and other commodities, it is generally those on the poverty line which are most affected by food price increases. There are households the world over which spend over 80% of their income on food. In recent years we have seen an increase in protests, riots and poverty all stemming from increases in food prices.

So Opulent Ethics has come to the conclusion that, as the world is spun by money and the increase in gold prices has made the material even more precious then the same must be true for coffee, cotton, saffron, cloves, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg as all of these have seen significant increases in price in recent years. And, for this reason, Opulent Ethics will be considering each of these in turn in order to decide which will work best inside our precious pomanders.

Pop back in a few weeks to see which alternative precious materials Opulent Ethics chooses to challenge the idea of “preciousness” and why these materials were chosen. Now it’s time to get back to the drawing board and finish off our pomanders.

That’s all for now….



Cheap but cheerful with an ethical twist

It has been a slow week for ethical issues and we are all feeling the pinch so today Opulent Ethics have had a scan around for a few beautiful ethical pieces of jewellery which won’t break the bank.

This £14 Shared Earth Fair Trade Peacock Feather Bangle is bright and funky and would look great with a tan. The colours make it on trend for this summers hippy chic and bright 70’s inspired styles.

  

 Shared Earth Peacock Feather Bangle

This copper bangle by Anna MCD is beautifully etched using ethically sound processes. This particular design sees a raven swirling round the piece. A little higher in price at £70 but it is a real statement piece.

Anna MCD Raven Bangle

People Tree produce some beautiful wearable pieces of clothing but this beaded flower necklace proves that they can also do wearable jewellery as well. Made from glass beads under Fair Trade principles this £30 necklace is stunning.

People Tree Beaded Flower Necklace 

Again, made by People Tree, these statement bangles combine brass and coloured bone or wood to great effect. The bangles are individually priced at £15 but look great when mixed up together.

People Tree Colourful Bangles

Definitely a few inexpensive pieces which can bring a smile to any ethical fashionista’s face and will brighten up any gloomy April day.

That’s all for now….