A little jewelry industry insider information...

What makes Ruff&Cut ethical, you ask?

In the jewelry industry, it is a very daunting task to be ethical. Most diamonds lack any type of transparency, miners are paid the smallest salary, and with the high prices you may be asking yourself just where does the money all go. How could something so tiny cost so much? After all, it comes right out of the Earth.

I used to ask myself the same question. Never one for fine jewelry unless it was given to me as a gift, I usually stuck to the cheaper costume style jewelry that you’d find at h&m. My idea of sustainable was buying second-hand at the flea market. Paying $500+ for a little bracelet? Forget about it! Beyond outrageous, right?

Jewelry casting image courtesy goodlifer.com via google via creativecommons.org

But, then I scored a little gig working in the office of a fresh new jewelry company called Ruff&Cut and I got to learn a little bit more about how the whole operation works. I got to meet the designers and see just how much work goes in to not only coming up with the concept of each design, but of the sketching and model making and working with the metalsmiths. Then the laborous jobs of the jewelry casters who work with all kinds of crazy-looking tools and flames and magnifiers so that they can see the tiny cuttings they have to make to get the detailing on a design just right, like the veins on a leaf pendant or the filagree on a bezel. 

All these things add up, and we haven’t even touched the cost of diamonds and metals surface. Although silver and gold prices were down not too long ago, they’ve recently gone up and will likely continue to rise due to the decreasing value of the dollar. The mining and shipping of diamonds and gems, as we all infamously know, doesn’t come cheap either, and with all the issues surrounding finding a trustworthy source for those precious rocks (think Blood Diamond), you have to pay top dollar most of the time to be sure you’re getting a conflict-free stone.

After all is said and done, then we have to be able to pay a ton of overhead and if the jewelry is selling in a store rather than online, the retailer gets half the profits from whatever they sell. A lot more goes into making and selling jewelry than I ever imagined, and now I’m just left amazed that women mainly only like jewelry because it’s sparkly. After reading this, I hope they get a deeper love and respect.

With the economy as it is, it’s no surprise the industry is suffering, although not as much as you might think. The smaller sustainable jewelry industry- despite getting a lot of media attention –struggles in particularly since there are still a lot of people out there who could care less whether their diamond is conflict-free or not. But, we’re gaining more and more “conscious” minds everyday and the amount of rough diamond engagement rings we’ve sold to young women goes to show this new generation holds a lot of promise.

The point I’m trying to make is that even though that little ring on your finger may not look like much in girth even if it is a lot in appearance, a lot goes into making it, and when you buy an Earth-friendly and socially responsible piece of jewelry, it glitters all the more brightly.

Jessica Pherson has been an integral part of the Ruff&Cut team for nearly three years now, mainly in administration, web maintenance, communications and public relations. She writes all of the posts for this blog and would love to hear from you in the comments!