Ethical Making.

'Any tool can be used for good or bad. It's really the ethics of the artist using it'. John Knoll

So here's the question - or more to the point - the challenge:

I buy silver that [I have been told] is ethically mined.

I buy precious stones that [I am told] have been ethically mined.

I use modelling wax that [I'm told] is biodegradable.

The inks I print with are environmentally safe and the cartridges recyclable.

The paper I design on is recycled and unbleached.

But that, it seems to me is where the certainty of ethically sourced and manufactured jewellery starts and finishes.

I don't know how my tools have been made. Have you ever heard of an ethically manufactured hammer [unless you know the blacksmith who has made it for you] or perhaps a file made from steel that has been ethically milled?

I don't know what happens to the waste water and by-products from the refining of my silver scrap or the source of the energy used to cast my creations.

The challenge is the traceability and transparency of the information available.

I can only conduct my business in the most socially responsible manner possible to me right now.

It all comes down to the ethics of the artist - my ethics, my conscience, my commitment to the environment.