New Designers does exactly what it says on the tin!

Opulent Ethics have been so busy over the last 3 weeks that we have been neglecting the blog. We thought you deserved an explanation of why we haven't been around so here goes....

- First off we completed the Precious Pomanders for our final university project. These will be up on the Opulent Ethics website as soon as possible but here is a picture of the final pieces in the meantime.

Cherished mini-pomanders

- Then Opulent Ethics exhibited in the Birmingham City University School of Jewellery final show alongside Emily Richard, Annie Li and Susie Alexander to name but a few.

- And finally we arrived in London for New Designers....and boy what a treat that was! Not only was it a great opportunity to show Opulent Ethics off to the public but there were also a few other ethical students exhibiting that we got to meet and swap and share ideas with.

Ali Bartlett was in the Applied Craft section of New Designers but we met up and talked about the future of working with sustainable and recycled materials in our work.

Ali Bartlett sandblasted bead

Craig Owen was with the Duncan of Jordanstone University of Dundee stand and had spent his time researching sustainability as a design feature. There were a few interesting conversations and discussions had here!

Lynsey Pluck was exhibiting under the One Year On section of New Designers and was showing off some of her recycled sari material pieces. All the materials used by Lynsey are ethically sourced and the result is beautiful.

Lynsey Pluck recycled sari material brooch

It was a fantastic chance to get feedback and share ideas with new people and, more importantly, new people who share Opulent Ethics' ideals. It was a great chance to share and learn from other sources.

So, thank you to Birmingham City University's School of Jewellery for 3 years of inspiring, tiring, challenging work. Thanks to New Designers for hosting Opulent Ethics and all the other amazing exhibitors. And thank you to the new friends that we made there...Ali Bartlett and Craig Owen.

That's all for now....

Birmingham meets its most precious visitors; the Oro Verde gold team

This week has seen a Fairtrade gold competition taking place at Birmingham City University’s School of Jewellery in collaboration between the school and the Oro Verde green gold programme. And today has been the most illusionary, informative and amazing day for the competition and for Opulent Ethics.

On Monday the brief was given out to students at the School of Jewellery along with presentations about Fair Trade, the impact of mining, the Oro Verde programme and industry developments and tomorrow is the deadline for designs. So we will be waiting with baited breath to see what fantastic designs we receive.

But back to today; as part of London Jewellery Week’s Essence section three esteemed guests have been invited to visit the UK from Colombia and we were lucky enough to convince them to visit Birmingham as part of their whirlwind tour.

Claudia Vallejo, Sandra Hernandez Garrido and Americo Masquero viewing an
Assay Punch at the Birmingham Assay Office

 

Luis Americo Mosquera is an artisanal miner from the Choco Bioregion of Colombia. He is the head of one of seven families which work a mine in the region and share the profits between them. He has been mining the area for 45 years and works the mine with his son, daughter and extended family. The mine is one of the biggest involved in the Oro Verde programme and is on land which was owned by Americo’s parents and grandparents.

Sandra Hernandez Garrido works for Amichoco and heads up the Oro Verde Commercial Unit. As well as working for the Non-Government Organisation which has helped develop and promote the Oro Verde programme she was also our very talented and fluent translator for the day.

Claudia Vallejo is also from Colombia and is a traditionally trained jeweller who runs her business, Biojoy from Bogota. She spent time studying artistic design at Massana in Barcelona before taking this home and translating it into designs which would work in Colombia.

The first stop for our group was the Birmingham Assay Office where we were given background information on the history and standing of the assay office today. Assay Office representatives met with and listened to Americo as he explained how he and his fellow workers mine the land using traditional methods to supply the UK with the world’s only ecologically mined Fairtrade gold.

We then went on a tour of the impressive facilities of the Assay Office. We were shown the stamp room and were given demonstrations of the different types of punches used by jewellers, silversmiths, retailers and manufacturers throughout the UK. But the best bit of the tour happened in the laser room at the Assay Office where our guests were shown and presented with personalised cards of the stamps which are available at the Assay Office including the Fairtrade / Fairmined gold mark and its ecological Fairtrade / Fairmined gold counterpart.

Claudia tries her hand at assay marking some jewellery

Americo with his personalised card of Assay Office punches including the
new Fairtrade / Fairmined and Ecological Fairtrade / Fairmined gold marks 

Close up of one of the assay cards with the Fairtrade marks at the bottom

After this wonderful tour we then rushed across the Jewellery Quarter to the Museum where we were, very kindly, given a private tour of the old Smith and Pepper factory which makes up the museum. It was really inspiring to watch Claudia here as she was fascinated to see pieces of machinery that she uses in her studio at home stuck in the factory time warp. The group also learnt something of the British class system which didn’t allow staff to mix with customers of female workers to operate any of the heavy machinery.

Next we moved onto the School of Jewellery where students who wish to enter the competition were invited to meet and question the Colombian guests in order to help inspire them further. And this time it was not just questions about Americo’s work but also Claudia was asked about how she designs and creates her pieces.

Much to the amazement of us spoilt UK jewellers (and we include ourselves here) we learnt how Claudia alloys and forms her own metal from pure gold. This is something which is not really considered in the UK jewellery industry as we are able to purchase materials as sheet, wire, tube or casting grain quickly and easily. Claudia also spoke of how her designs are influenced by her work at the bench and how she lets her hands influence the outcome of her pieces. This is definitely a very different way of designing when compared with how many of us sit down with a sketch book or computer design software and draw our ideas rather than letting the materials we work with inform us.

After this Q & A session in amongst the hustle and bustle of the School, which is preparing for the students final show next week, we then took a quick tour of the School facilities in order to convey to our guests how the students work and study and the exciting machinery and technologies which are available to them. Hopefully this provided a more comprehensive insight into the processes many of us use when manufacturing our jewellery and silversmithing pieces.

And finally, we visited Weston Beamor, one of the few companies in the UK who are licensed to cast using the Fairtrade / Fairmined gold. Here we discussed both sides’ experiences of the supply chain so far and hopes for the future.

All in all it was a very informative and full day which was, hopefully, as enjoyable for our guests as it was for those of us who took part in showing them round.

So thank you to all who were involved; the School of Jewellery, the Birmingham Assay Office, the Jewellery Quarter Museum and Weston Beamor. But most of all thank you to three very inspirational people. Americo; thank you for believing that the region where you live is special and diverse and did not deserve to be destroyed by large scale mining companies but that it should be cherished and preserved for your families to come. Thank you also to Sandra for working so tirelessly and hard to help ensure that what started as a small operation has now grown into a sector of the industry which provides an acceptable alternative to dirtier materials. And finally, thank you to Claudia who was so inspirational and positive about working with this new and exciting material. We think that her passion is so contagious that not one person who met her today would deny that Oro Verde gold is anything but an amazing material: the most loved gold in the world!

If you want any more information about Oro Verde gold see the Oro Verde website by clicking here. There is also information on the Fair Labelling Organisations involvement here.

So, after a very informative day; that’s all for now….

Oro Verde gold competition coming to Birmingham School of Jewellery

Students at Birmingham City University’s School of Jewellery will have a golden opportunity to take part in an exciting competition next week. The collaborative competition is being run jointly by the University and Oro Verde as a way of increasing knowledge of and interest in Fair Trade gold.

BCU School of Jewellery

Ami Choco region

The competition winners will have their designs promoted through Oro Verde and there is a chance that the pieces may be produced by artisanal crafts people from the Oro Verde community in Columbia.

Included in the competition briefing, which takes part next week, will be a visit by representatives from the Choco Bioregion who are in the UK for London Jewellery Week. As part of their trip they will visit Birmingham for a tour of the jewellery quarter and the School of Jewellery as well as meeting the students who are taking part.

And if that wasn’t exciting enough, there will be some well known names on the judging panel too!

Keep an eye out here for information on how the competition is running throughout next week.

That’s all for now….

Opulent Ethics heading for New Designers

As we here at Opulent Ethics are finishing off our Precious pomander range we are also considering our next step. And we think it is time to show off our pomanders to the world.

One of Opulent Ethics' Cherished pomanders



So, as well as being on the Opulent Ethics website soon, we will be showing the Precious range at the Birmingham City University School of Jewellery Final Show from 13^th – 17^th June before heading to London to New Designers where the pieces will be on show from 30^th June – 3^rd July.

The shows are open to the public on the dates mentioned so come along and see us.

That’s all for now….

Opulent Ethics pendant wins second place in Charles Green competition

The School of Jewellery in Birmingham held a prize giving event last night to reveal the winners of the annual Charles Green / DFI competition. Now in its third year, the competition is held by Charles Green, a family run business in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, and entered by the School of Jewellery’s BA Design for Industry (DFI) students.

Competition entrants were given either 1 or 2 stones by Charles Green and the brief was to design and make a silver pendant or earrings using Computer Aided Design (CAD) technology.

There were 4 winners from the 18 entrants; Annie Li took first prize with her silver and gold plated Lotus pendant. She wins work experience with Charles Green as well as a monetary prize.

  

Opulent Ethics founder, Helen Dobson took second prize with her partly-oxidised (using boiled eggs), 100% recycled UK silver and Peridot Nepenthes pendant.

 

Opulent Ethics' Nepenthes Pendant

Third prize went to Sophie Waters for her pendant and an additional fourth prize went to Amy Roberts for the excellent marketing she did for her Giggle pendant.     

All pieces were also on sale during the event which was open to industry members and saw a presence from numerous Birmingham Jewellery Quarter companies including the Assay Office, the Jewellery Industry Innovation Centre (JIIC) and, of course, Charles Green. 

Opulent Ethics were very proud to accept their award which was for awareness of current trends, problem solving throughout the design process and the finished eye-catching piece.

Inspired by carnivorous pitcher plants and the beautiful green of the Peridot stone supplied by Charles Green, the Nepenthes pendant was created within Opulent Ethics’ ethical policy and used recycled silver rather than those metals used by other entrants.

To find out more about Opulent Ethics or our Nepenthes Range please visit our new wind-powered website;

www.opulentethics.com

That’s all for now….

Birmingham becomes ethically Brilliant!

So Brilliantly Birmingham has come to an end but not before a great talk on ethical jewellery was held. The talk, titled “Jewellery Ethics; Making and Buying” didn’t seem to stick to what it said on the tin but in this case, that was not necessarily a bad thing.

 Brilliantly Birmingham poster

Even before anyone began talking the line-up was like a who’s who of ethical celebrity. On the panel was Vivien Johnston the founder of ethical company Fifi Bijoux, Jack Cunningham the Head of Birmingham’s School of Jewellery, Sara Preisler a Birmingham based sculptural jeweller, Fairtrade Foundation representative Greg Valerio and the panel was led by Kate Carter, The Guardian’s ethical fashion extraordinaire.

Each gave a lecture on their backgrounds, interests and how and why they are interested in ethics before a question session was opened up to the public. Vivien Johnston spoke about how she took ethical practices into account when considering her business plan as she set Fifi Bijoux up. We here at Opulent Ethics think that considering our ethical beliefs as we set up our business rather than as an add on at a later date is integral to being a successful ethical jeweller and we hope that this business advice will stand us in good stead when Opulent Ethics is fully set up.

Fifi Bijoux bangle

Fifi Bijoux is an aspirational brand which encourages its consumers to buy into their story. Having spent time sourcing materials for another company Vivien Johnston was determined that all materials used in Fifi Bijoux’s pieces would be traceable, of a high standard and have a chain of custody which can be validated. Ms Johnston founded the British Ethical Jewellery Association as a way of forcing ethics in jewellery into the mainstream.

Jack Cunningham played devil’s advocate by talking about how the jewellery industry as a whole is the dirtiest industry going and that all jewellers know this. Opulent Ethics felt that this was an interesting point which deserved to be made and, coming from a jeweller who is not yet ethical, it reiterates the fact that ethics as an issue is rising and soon, no-one in the industry will be able to shy away from it.

Next, Sara Preisler went on to discuss what beauty is. Obviously the answer to this is personal to us all but Sara Preisler made a very interesting point about why beauty surrounds preciousness and asked who decides gold and diamonds are precious? She went on to suggest that, by individual jewellers and consumers moving away from bling then we may make a change in how materials are considered. Opulent Ethics are currently experimenting with this idea by using vegetable ivory in their next range. We will let you know how we get on!

Sara Preisler cufflinks

Finally, Greg Valerio spoke very passionately about how the Fair Trade movement is a good economic response to social injustice and that, whilst being helpful, recycling is not the full answer. Greg Valerio made a very interesting point about how the jewellery industry is very good at producing beautiful items whilst hiding the horror which is experienced at source. It led Opulent Ethics to think about what impact there would be on consumer opinion if we knew in detail about the destruction and terror which allows our jewellery to be produced. Opulent Ethics are now more determined than ever to be 100% ethical in our practices.

He also went on to talk about the Fair Trade Gold Hallmark which will be released in February (for Valentines Day) and how this is a massive step forward as there are now clearly defined standards which can be downloaded from the Fairtrade Labelling Organisation website. He also spoke about the plan to have 25 tonnes of Fair Trade gold sold in the UK over the next 15 years. For anyone who is interested in registering to use the Hallmark contact Victoria Waugh ( gold@fairtrade.org.uk ) for details.

So the overall message from this Brilliantly Birmingham talk is that ethical jewellery now has the start of a fairy tale story which can and will be pushed forward. Fair Trade gold is going to be all over the place in the run up to the release of the Hallmark so watch this space for more information.

So Happy New Year and that’s all for now….