June 28th, 2010
In our industrialized world, where everything is mass produced and unoriginal, handmade jewellery is a lost art. In impoverished areas like South Africa, India and Latin America, however, it’s a way of making a sustainable living.
Fair trade suppliers like Silver Chilli in Mexico are finding ways to capture a broader audience outside of their impoverished region. Their craftspeople are paid up to 50 percent in advance to make handmade jewellery like silver bangles that they sell through “marketplace” type websites—companies that also do their part to ensure that these artisans are given a fair wage and ethical working environments.
Through fair trade suppliers, artisans are also able to learn skills like bead-making and are sometimes even moved up to office management, jobs that allow many single mothers to support their families as well as their communities. Some suppliers go on to assist and develop local projects, while others plant trees to offset the carbon footprint made by flying their goods around the world. Plus, by sourcing local work, the wages earned by the artisans are spent in their own hometowns, instead of abroad where many look for employment and live apart from their families.
As the world turns more globally conscious, local boutiques here in the U.K. are also taking an interest in ethical, handmade jewellery. Stores often carry necklaces and earrings made with fair trade gold and jewels procured through ethical means. Eco-friendly shops are also popping up, ensuring that a sales percentage of whatever goods are made in countries like Thailand and India ends up in the hands of the craftspeople.
Ethical gift & ethical jewellery shops like these are also a good business move, as owners are finding that customers are increasingly asking about where their goods are sourced and made, preferring to buy handmade jewellery crafted locally or by artisans compensated under suitable working conditions, such as Kazuri jewellery in Kenya.
While ethical handmade jewellery remains a rarity in most U.K. and American department stores, if consumers continue to act globally, demand could change supply within the next decade.
For more information about Handmade Jewellery, visit This Fair Earth at http://www.thisfairearth.com.