Oct 13, 2008
Author: Jenn Breckenridge
Greenloop
Lori Bonn Design has been crafting stunning jewelry with gorgeous semi-precious stones and silver for over seventeen years. Many typical questions came up for designer Lori Bonn Gallagher over the years-where to source materials, what merchants to sell through, how to run a successful operation while creating pieces her clients could fall in love with. In 2005, some much deeper questions about her business came to mind. Where do these stones really come from? What's happening to the people who mine them? Is consumption on this level acceptable? This was a turning point for Lori Bonn Design and the beginning of Clear Conscience Jewelry.
Bill Gallagher, partner and operations guru at LBD, explained in a recent interview, "Clear Conscience Jewelry is our project to create a new standard for environmentally and socially responsible jewelry. It's jewelry that you can wear with a clear conscience and then feel as good as you look. The three elements of Clear Conscience Jewelry are ethical manufacturing, recycled metals, and responsibly produced gemstones."
Every collection Lori Bonn Design produces is made with at least 50% recycled metals. They've dropped any manufacturing facilities that they could not prove were providing fair wages and have safe working conditions free of abuse and discrimination. Bill and Lori have become an integral part of the Madison Dialogue, a coalition of jewelry manufacturers, retailers, conservation groups, and mining associations that have joined together to establish standards and best practices for fair trade and ethical jewelry. With their new Chrysalis Collection, LBD is combining recycled metals with traceable stones while doing everything in their power to make sure the land where their raw materials come from are restored fully after being mined. All these efforts combined make the Chrysalis Collection Lori Bonn's most socially and ecologically responsible line yet.
Living in California and manufacturing in places from Java to Jaipur makes truly ethical production a hard won challenge for Lori, but well worth it. "Knowledge is power. Right now, most of the gemstones on the market today pass through many unnamed hands before they reach the jewelry store and it is virtually impossible to know what happened along the way…Personally, I want to feel good about the planet I leave to my two children and the legacy of the business I build and I think most people feel similarly."
So Lori Bonn makes every effort to understand the effects of every aspect of how their exotic collections come to market. In their Indonesian operations, Lori Bonn Design has even started pushing for women to have prenatal benefits and to be introduced into management positions. They have also been working hard on initiating a post-consumer silver recycling program there. It is obvious that these people are walking the walk, regardless of how daunting the path to conscious jewelry making may be.
Through their Clear Conscience Jewelry project, Lori Bonn aims to create greater consumer interest in ethical jewelry. "I think it is becoming obvious that we can't continue to consume more, more, more, even if it is 'green.' It is an insatiable appetite that hurts the planet and leaves us ultimately unfulfilled. I think that in the future, what will matter more is the process and story behind the product." If Lori Bonn Design is any example, the story behind the precious metal and stone we adorn ourselves with is well worth a listen.
6 Comments:
Hopefully, this reaches David Rose who posted a comment on my blog about looking for a jewelry blogger.I have a recommendation for you. Please email me at tammypowley@yahoo.com
Wow, how unique! Beautiful!!! How did you come across this line of jewelry???
Jenica
www.celticmomentsjewelry.com
how about tiffany here?
http://www.tiffany.topugg.com
Love Lori Bonn necklace design... Its a superb...
Helena
http://www.fullpearl.com
Hope you could come up with a collection of tungsten ring , men’s tungsten ring , gold tungsten wedding bands.
THE WONDER YEARS is expected to have those scenes actually placed back into the scene from which THE WONDER YEARS DVD were deleted in order to show them as part of the scene play rather than simply showing deleted scenes standing alone. For all the eager enthusiasts following the Twilight movies, these ten extra minutes of new information on the New Moon THE WONDER YEARS DVD COLLECTION is exciting news.
ED Hardy is one of the few labels that never go out of fashion. Designed by the famous tattoo artist, these ED Hardy Shoes are said to stand the test of time as far as fashion goes. Actually the whole thing is quite simple. Whenever hardy shirt comes to fashion, the designs are thought out well and tell us about the wearer’s personality. If a buyer can relate to the fashion, then he or she can feel comfortable wearing hardy shirts . Hence before you buy any clothes you must decide which ones actually fit your style.
The Hogan scarpe Hi. Yeah, that's it." Such conversations are going on all over the country, anywhere people talk about Hogan scarpe donna shoes, which is pretty much every where. If you've owned a pair of hogan donna you've probably had a chat just like that. When you did you named your favorite Hogan scarpe uomo , for sure.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home