Now using Oro Verde Fair Trade gold! 

At Mahailia Jewellery Design we are passionate about making beautiful, bespoke jewellery that is socially and environmentally friendly. We take great care in sourcing the most ethically produced materials available.

We are able to offer our customers the confidence they deserve in knowing they are not perpetuating any socially or environmentally unacceptable practices when buying a piece of bespoke jewellery made by Mahailia Jewellery Design.

Being a small company means we have full control of the labour involved in making each piece of jewellery. The majority of our jewellery is hand made on site, by ourselves. Any work we out source is crafted by a small team of expert craftsmen within Scotland and the UK. We feel it is important to keep specialist trades alive within the UK and try to use UK industries where ever possible.

At Mahailia Jewellery Design we source our Electricity from Ecotricity a green electricity supplier to lower our carbon footprint as far as possible. We are also currently working on being able to supply our jewellery in Recycled Fair trade packaging - watch this space!

Metals:

Our Fair Trade Gold:

We are very pleased to be able to use Oro Verde fair trade gold. The Corporation Oro Verde is a collective of community, sustainability and environmental organisations from the Choco region of Columbia. Together they work with 12 Afro-Columbian communities to support small-scale alluvial mining operations. Oro Verde have pioneered an environmentally sustainable, socially responsible form of artisanal mining that seeks to preserve the unique and vital virgin rainforest ecoosystems while providing a fair, regular source of income to miners, their families and their communities.

Oro Verde created the first Certified Green Gold programme in the world. Mines, miners and metals are independently audited by The Institute of Environmental Research of the Pacific. This process ensures that all the gold sourced by Oro Verde is independently certified as Fairly Traded. As founder members of the Alliance for responsible Mining, Oro Verde have been working with the Fairtrade Labelling Organisation towards the creation of the worlds first "Fair Trade Gold" standard.

We are not currently able to sell Fair Trade 9ct gold, but understand that budget can be a deciding factor that makes 18ct gold unattainable, therefore we source our 9ct gold alloy from a company we feel works hard to progress the industry into better practices. This gold is approximately 50% recycled from scrap gold.

We source our 9ct gold from a company  heavily involved in the actions of the CRJP (Council of Responsible Jewellery Practices),  that adhere to ‘The Golden Rules’ and CRJP principles which call on mining companies to meet the following basic standards in their operations:

• Respect for basic human rights outlined in international conventions and law.
• Free, prior and informed consent of affected communities.
• Safe working conditions.
• Respect for workers’ rights and labour standards.
• Ensure that operations are not located in areas of armed or militarised conflict.
• Ensure that projects do not force communities off their lands.
• No dumping of wastes into the ocean, rivers, lakes or streams.
• Ensure that projects are not located in protected areas, fragile ecosystems or other areas of high conservation or ecological value.
• Ensure that projects do not generate sulphuric acid in perpetuity.
• Cover all costs of closing down and cleaning up mine sites.
• Fully disclose information about social and environmental effects of projects.
• Allow independent verification of the above

Mahailia Jewellery Design fully support Oxfam's ‘No Dirty Gold’ campaign, please visit their website for an overview of the social, environmental and economic impacts of gold mining.

Our Silver:

We are now proud to be using 100% recycled silver sourced from the UK! *

*some  bespoke pieces may have small fittings or mechanisms that are not made 100% recycled silver, please ask concerning your piece of jewellery.

Diamonds:

In recent years people have become much more aware of diamonds being used to fund conflict within war torn countries such as Angola and Sierra Leone. These concerns have led to the introduction of ‘The Kimberly process’ which aims to eliminate  conflict diamonds from legitimate trade.

 The film ‘Blood Diamond’ has also brought this issue very much into the public’s eye making them aware of the impact of their purchases - this really has pushed the issue much further along which we think is a fantastic example of the power and impact the arts can have.

We strongly support the Kimberly process and guarantee all our diamonds are conflict free.
Our diamonds are sourced from ethically sound suppliers who work with the EITI (Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative) to insure the transparency of flows of diamond revenues. They are also heavily involved in human rights, anti corruption issues, good governance, labour standards and anti money laundering.

The majority of our diamonds are cut using Computer Aided Technology bypassing the cutting and polishing factories where it is difficult to regulate working conditions.

Coloured Gem Stones:

Because of the media focus on the diamond industry a lot of people are still unaware of similar problems within the coloured gem stone trade.

Our suppliers of coloured gemstones personally visit the mines and factories where our gemstones are processed to be able to guarantee our stones are free from conflict, child labour and unnecessary usage of pollutants and that the working conditions of miners, cutters and polishers are good. This is vitally important considering the average working lifespan of a Chinese miner is only three years.

Some companies have entirely stopped trading with Burma as income from many of the mines are used to fund conflict. This is taking away the livelihood of people working within ethically sound and conflict free mines and factories and our suppliers have spent considerable time in Burma sourcing ethically sound Burmese Gemstones.

In short, we strongly believe that the only way to be involved in the process of creating beautiful bespoke pieces of jewellery is with a strong ethical approach to the whole process. We are constantly striving to improve our supply chain and our working practices.