Sustainability
'Individually we are one drop, together we are the ocean'
Ryunosuke Satoro
From the very beginning of the Wild Silver Jewellery journey, it has been of the utmost importance to me to ensure that every part of my business has minimal or zero impact on our incredibly beautiful, but fragile natural environment. Please read on to learn of the steps I take throughout the jewellery making process and beyond to reduce and most often eliminate my environmental impact.
The Silver
I use a product called 'Silver Clay' to make the vast majority of my jewellery, and environmental protection is the reason that I was drawn to it. The silver within the clay has been recycled from the waste of the silver industry, having been reclaimed from sources such as old computer circuit boards, photographic equipment and waste from silver smiths.
Silver mining is actually classed as one of the world's most destructive industries on the planet, silver is a finite resource, and mining of this precious metal can have disastrous impacts upon the surrounding area, both environmentally and socially. Open pits and waste heaps remain after the land has been mined which adversely affect the local communities and natural habitats, toxic chemicals are used to process the silver and these chemicals along with other heavy metals and by products of the mining work their way into the air, soil and water courses bringing catastrophic damage to ecosystems and loss of biodiversity. These impacts are unfortunately the tip of the iceberg, the list goes on and illustrates just how important it is to buy recycled silver over mined silver.
I also use 100% recycled silver wire to make my ear wires, jump rings and the other components that make up your jewellery. I feel it is worth noting that recycled silver has exactly the same look and feel as virgin silver, you really can't tell the difference!
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The incredible environmental benefits of silver clay continue in that I can reconstitute both the dust from sanding the clay and any pieces that break during the fragile 'dry clay' stage. This clay can be ground down in a coffee grinder, mixed with a little water and reformed back into fresh silver clay. I also collect any fired, solid silver waste and am able send it off to be melted down and repurposed into reusable silver, nothing is wasted.
Jewellery Production
The concept of 'Slow Fashion' or 'Slow Jewellery' in this case is extremely important to me. The slow fashion movement encourages consumers to buy fewer clothes or accessories and to invest only in high quality items that will last longer, thus bringing less demand, less waste and less use of valuable resources. The movement also encourages people to be more mindful of exactly how their items have been made: through the traceability of the elements that make up the product; ensuring ethical and fair labour; reducing the miles that the product has travelled; and favouring the use of hand tools instead of machines that mass produce jewellery.
This is why I ensure that I go the extra mile to put my time, my love and my care into every single piece of Wild Silver jewellery. It takes me a long time to make each item, but I can assure my buyers of high-quality workmanship resulting in high quality jewellery, which given that it is cared for correctly, can be loved for a lifetime and more!
My studio is in the UK, at my home in Croyde, North Devon, so I have zero miles to commute, and I am able to walk to my local post office to post all of my orders. I use 100% renewable energy at home and within my studio and use very little water. I am also a strong believer in fixing things if they break instead of needlessly buying new tools and wasting resources, when I do need to buy equipment, I use UK suppliers for tools and equipment wherever possible. I am even able to re-use the solution I use to apply a blackened patina on the surface of some of my jewellery in my garden as a fertiliser! … every base is covered!
I also extend my ethical and environmental care when it comes to sourcing the little natural treasures that I use to create my jewellery. I find the vast majority of the shells that I use to create the moulds on my local beaches of Croyde, Putsborough and Woolacombe, or on the beaches of the beautiful countries that I have travelled over the years. And for any that I have bought, I always ensure they have been ethically and sustainably sourced. When hunting for leaves in the hedgerows to use as imprints in my leaf jewellery, I am always careful to only use one or two leaves from each plant, ensuring that the plant is not adversely affected.
Packaging
Wild Silver jewellery boxes have been made in Europe, and are FSC certified, which guarantees that all materials used to make the boxes come from a FSC forest where no more wood is cut down than the forest can reproduce, meaning better protection of the animal and plant life. The FSC mark also ensures that all foresters have proper training and a decent wage. A water-based glue is used to make the boxes and they contain foam inserts made using 'tall oil', a by-product of paper production.
Your Jewellery box will arrive carefully wrapped in tissue paper, along with a short note detailing how to care for your jewellery and the environmental aspects of Wild Silver jewellery, which my customers often like to pass onto gift recipients. I also enclose a small handwritten thankyou note, all paper products that I use are both recycled and recyclable, If you would not like this paperwork, please let me know in the order comments. These items will be safely packed within a FSC certified cardboard postal box sealed with plant based, plastic free tape and plastic free, vegan, recycled and recyclable stickers.
Taking things one step further
As a business, I would like to give back more than I take from the environment, so I've teamed up with a company called Ecologi, and together we plant a tree for every order placed on my website.
Ecologi is an environmental organisation whose mission is to reduce global COâ‚‚ emissions by 50% by 2040, through facilitating the funding of carbon offset projects and planting billions of trees around the world. Ecologi work in Partnership with Eden Reforestation who reforest countries such as Mozambique, Madagascar and Nicaragua with diverse and native trees, providing employment and support for local communities.
The environmental benefits of planting trees are extensive and hugely important: they absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, storing it and making them without doubt the best carbon capture technology in the world; they provide a home, food and protection for wildlife; they purify the air and water, removing many pollutants; they provide soil stability reducing erosion and protecting coastal areas; and provide essential food and materials for local communities.
