I've been told by family, friends and colleagues that I am a bit overzealous about my strides to become toxin free, to have a business based on love not profits and my belief that the reaches of how conscious I should be has no limits. I agree. My thirst for knowledge about the toxic metals, poisons, acids, the chemically caustic and mutagenic compounds the jewelry industry uses every day is insatiable. The changes I'm making in the studio are not easy to get used to, are usually big steps, take lots of time to research, and are generally quite expensive in relation to what has been tried and true. Some of the things I change are so small and minute, it is hard to justify the time and expense that went into them. However, if I don't learn, no one will ever tell me. If I don't take the steps to protect my Jewelers who work with these materials every day and my customers who will wear the pieces we create possibly every day of their lives, who will?
When I ran the store with my dad I never knew that what was used to create the jewelry I sold was toxic. The business was just that, a business. Buy some stuff, sell it for more than you bought and there in the profit is a business. Simple, I should be able to follow that, make a living, buy some nice stuff throughout my life grow old, retire, and pass on the wealth to my family when I die. I didn't think beyond that, as I wasn't enjoying this life of a businessman. It wasn't until Love started to open my mind and heart to the universe that I started to take a deeper look at what was the result of what I did every day to make a living. What I discovered was I was a purveyor of jewelry so toxic that it would have been illegal to sell in Europe.
It started out when I tried to find out why a particular customers prong broke for no apparent reason I could discern and decided to research it that I discovered nickel was the primary alloy. At first, I was only interested in how the nickel was corroding to the point the prongs were breaking and the stones were coming out, a type of jewelry rot called stress corrosion. This I found was awful enough, and decided to research other options to give my customers better quality jewelry. That was when I found out that in Europe, nickel had been banned in jewelry not because of its material problems, rather because it was so toxic! After doing more research I found out Nickel is a heavy metal that once it enters the body will never leave it. Once the body has accumulated too much toxic nickel, it can never touch it again or we break out in a rash. This why people have what are actually misinformed 'gold allergies.' Extremely rarely is anyone allergic to pure gold, it is stable and hypoallergenic. It is actually the alloys in the gold. Not only nickel; lead, cadmium (yes cadmium! The most toxic of the heavy metals with the dubious honor of being the 7th most toxic element on earth), ruthenium (a cancer causing mutagenic metal the body mistakes for iron and deposits in our bones), arsenic, mercury and zinc can be found mixed into the metals that make up jewelry. I was appalled, how could I be making money from such dangerous product?
After digging even deeper, I found countless toxic materials used every day in jewelry production. It was a horror list: boron, fluorine and potassium for soldering, ammonia for cleaning, cyanide for gold plating, hydrochloric acid and caustic soda for cleaning and it went on and on and on. Every week I wasl discovering a new health hazard. I was sick with the idea of how much compounded damage was being done to Jewelers, the planet, and the people who end up wearing the jewelry.
I was appalled, I was just about to open up a new studio and these are the materials I was going to be working with every day? No thanks. So I did what I always do when I want find something more environmentally friendly, typed in Eco friendly and added in jewelry. What I found was some companies trying, a few good people making a difference, but most of what out there despicable. Jewelry companies saying they're environmentally conscious because they use recycled gold, or maybe some went as far as using recycled packaging and signing no blood diamond promises (which is a crock for another entry). everywhere was information about the gold and diamond miners, but no one was talking about the heavy damage being caused by the production process itself. Even then, just because gold is recycled doesn't make it Eco conscious. In fact, some recycled gold is just as bad for the earth as mined gold. But who makes the distinction? Companies are clamoring to get the dollars out of peoples pockets, and if they can do it by fooling people, they will. Just because these companies claim to be green or Eco conscious does not make them so. Sadly, they are selling massive quantities of jewelry to people who have been misled into thinking it is.
The Abbey is not a business to make a profit. The Abbey is here to make a difference. To bring light to a dark and convoluted industry. To help open peoples eyes to the possibility of conscious, sustainable and toxin free jewelry that is made with love. Love over profits. I can buy that. If I can buy that, I feel comfortable offering it to the world. Even if I don't make a profit.
If changes aren't made, nothing will ever be changed.
There are many things more quantifiable, powerful, valuable, and worth living for than money.
No comments:
Post a Comment