Eco-jewellery inspired by beautiful Cornwall
 

Where I live and work constantly inspires me and I can't help translating the colours, shapes and textures that I see around Cornwall into my recycled jewellery collections.

I want to make lovely jewellery that lasts without depleting the Earth's resources or causing suffering of workers, for example mining stones or metal. I find a lot of stones myself and make sure others have fair-trade, traceable sources. 

I'm aiming to use as many recycled and sustainably sourced materials as possible: around 75% of my materials are recycled at the moment:

• I collect sea-glass, sea-plastic, sea-stringsea-worn rubber and driftwood from local beaches to use as statement pieces in my jewellery. I also set found crystals such as amethyst and aquamarine from the clay pits around St Austell, use twig silces, found seed cases, lichen and even leaves.
• the eco-silver and eco-gold I use are recycled from old jewellery, and industrial and IT sources: they are the same content as sterling silver and 9ct gold and are hallmarked as such when appropriate (when the weight exceeds 7g for silver, 1g for gold)
• As a happy car-booter and charity shopper, I'm always on the look-out for antique chains, vintage brooches, old pearls, lace and silver spoons to re-use and re-make into new jewellery and headdresses.
• My packaging is made from 72% recycled cardboard; and can be re-used or recycled easily. I re-use padded envelopes and shoe-boxes to send out your jewellery (so please forgive a few wrinkles!) and try and avoid printing out unnecessary paperwork: I'm aiming for a paperless office
• I use eco-tricity fuel supplier for my workshop and recycle as much household and work rubbish as possible

Like many people, I'm constantly trying to make my business (and life) more sustainable and 'greener' so any suggestions are always very welcome.