GroundJewels for ethical innovation
GroundJewels stands for ethical innovation and environmental responsibility. Here we present new works that are not only beautiful to wear, but also focus on environmental sustainability. In 2019 we launched our new initiative GroundJewels: for ethical innovation. It came about as a result of European Regional Development funding. We applied to a fund called Keep Plus, administered by Anglia Ruskin University. The purpose of the fund was to enable businesses to bring new products and services to market.
Ethical Jewellery
As a gallery dedicated to the environment we felt it was important to signal the fact that jewellery can be ethical. Normally, by no means all jewellery is environmentally sustainable or even ethically produced. However, all the jewellers we work with are very environmentally conscious. For them, and for GroundJewels, ethical means precious. Either GroundJewellers use recycled materials, or if the materials are new, they are compatible with environmental sustainability.
Jewellery needn’t cost the earth
Of course, jewellery can be a luxury, but there is no reason why it should not also be economical and resourceful. In so many ways, it needn’t cost the earth.
We need all of you to help us to shout about the environment. It needs our care and attention. If you can do this through the jewels you wear, you will be so much better dressed.
Innovation means … waste can be precious
Often the underlying ideas for their work, the themes, images and colours our GroundJewellers choose, are very much in tune with the environment. For example, to them (and to us), plastic is a precious material. It can be beautiful and is never a throw-away material. Check out the work of in our shop of Kirsten Sonne and Linda McFarlane to find out how they add new value to plastic.
It is now widely known that mining silver and other precious metals is very bad for both the environment and the miners. The GroundworkJewellers work with recycled silver. For example, see works by Sarah Drew.
There are also innovative new materials and processes, such as vegetable fibres and 3D printing. Linda McFarlane has been experimenting with these techniques. Judy McCaig is also an experimental maker using new combinations of materials. Then of course, there is the use of natural and found materials. Sarah Drew, who is a published author on ‘Wild Jewellery’, and Kirsten Sonne are wonderful exponents of this.