October Commission Feature - Fairtrade wedding rings

Blog

5 Oct

My first Fairtrade wedding rings

As you'll probably know if you've been following me for a while; I make a fair number of wedding rings each year and 2018 was no exception! After speaking at the Ethical Making conference in March 2018, I was keen to continue my journey into ethical making that I spoke about here. I wanted to make some Fairtrade wedding rings!

A small problem with ordering Fairtrade metal, is that my bullion supplier makes it to order. I have to order enough to cover their minimum order amount and manufacturing charges. So I was stuck between wanting to make rings from Fairtrade metal and not being able to afford the outlay that it entailed. (Side note: the more demand for these metals that there is, the more likely my bullion supplier will have it manufactured and ready to just cut to size like they do with the standard silver and gold. )

Learning about Fairtrade.

Luckily I knew what kind of price the metal would be having researched it. I quoted a couple, who I've known for a few years, for some 9ct white gold wedding rings. I added a quote in Fairtrade gold too. They wanted to support ethical making and it wasn't too much more expensive for the Fairtrade wedding rings. So I got an excited email saying they were happy to go ahead with them! Cue lots of whooping and cheering from me, this meant I was able to buy some metal and use it!

I am part of the Goldsmiths scheme, which you can find out more about here (I am searchable on the website). This means I can buy the Fairtrade metal, but I can't stamp it with the Fairtrade mark. If I was a licensee I could but currently the price of this is prohibitive for me. Still, I can buy the metal and that means the miners get a good deal; which is exactly what I want 🙂

I ordered the metal and was absolutely beside myself with excitement when it arrived. It felt like a monumental step in the right direction for me.