Good As Gold: Alkemie Jewelry Transforms An Industry
By Jenn Breckenridge
Filed Under Conscious Commerce, Sustainable Style |
Baubles, bands, and beads have been crafted, bartered, sold, and stolen for thousands of years. The oldest jewelry ever discovered was a collection of mollusk shell beads from South Africa dating back more than 75,000 years. As it turns out, self-adornment is virtually as old as the human race. The word “jewelry” comes from the Latin word jocale, meaning “plaything.” And though we may think of these trinkets as lighthearted and amorous “playthings,” the negative impact from jewelry production has become surprisingly colossal in more recent years.
Jewelry designers Ashley Lowengrub and Dara Gerson were appalled to discover the disastrous effects of open pit mining, a common method of gold extraction. Open pit mining first razes the virgin forest of an area, then systematically strips the land, layer by layer, in search of suspected gold. The mined earth is broken into small pieces, then treated with cyanide and sulphuric acid to separate gold from rock. Like black magic, this process transforms a pristine natural habitat into a barren wasteland of toxic waste dumps and chemical cesspools.
Once they understood the massive impact their work could potentially have, Dara and Ashley were compelled to change their own relationships with the precious metal and gem industry. They launched Alkemie Jewelry in January of this year, transforming bullet casings collected from shooting ranges into positively enchanting art nouveau pieces. Alkemie is already sold in chic boutiques from Fred Segal to ABC Home, to cutting edge e-tailers like eConscious Market and ShopBop. The couple has recently expanded to include sterling, gold, nickel, and copper in their recycled metal blends, and makes most of their collection to order.
Dara and Ashley design from their home studio in California’s Topanga Canyon, where breathtaking views of the coastal mountains can inspire them. Atop an early 1900’s antique work table, amidst vintage jewelry pieces, found objects, and two beautiful young daughters tearing around and throwing in their two cents, Ashley and Dara select and deliberate what new images will be forged. They lovingly describe their environment as “organized chaos.”
These seasoned designers bring a savvy intuition to their collection, conjuring their own wild surroundings of Topanga into metallic icons: maidens, mares, owls, foxes, sparrows, insects and angels. Alkemie’s timeless beauty, as well as timely green methodologies, have not gone unnoticed by the jewelry industry, still predominantly uninitiated in the concept of sustainability. When asked if they’ve noticed the recycled metal lines quickly following Alkemie’s lead, Ashley and Dara say, “…the more the merrier, hopefully we can make a collective conscious movement.” And that may indeed be exactly what they’re doing.
Alkemie Jewelry transforms discarded metals into family heirlooms, and like white magic, is quietly transmuting a toxic industry that pillages the planet, into a conscious craft that celebrates it.
Posted on July 28, 2008 |
Comments
17 Responses to “Good As Gold: Alkemie Jewelry Transforms An Industry”
Leave a Reply
-
eCo "Friendlier" Products
This jewelry is really beautiful, besides being eco-friendly.
Love the designs - the old world feel of it. Plus the sustainability of the line is great too.
Beautiful designs! Didn’t know about the destruction caused from ‘new’ metals…
Hopefully the time will come soon when things are no longer considered “beautiful” that cause death and destruction to produce.
Lines like Alkemie are inspiring in that they prove that design and beauty does not have to sacrifice the earth.
Thanks for the informative article Jenn.
Alkemie - is it a jewelry brand? have never heard this name before…
thank you for the wonderful article….
very informative…we are honored you chose our collection to highlight…collectively we can make a difference….blessings~dara and ashley
its horrible to hear what open pit mining does to the environment.
@Casio
Yes Alkemie is a jewelry brand. Do a search and you will see more of these beautiful pieces.
Great article!
Thank you Alkemie for making a difference. It’s wonderful to be able to wear their innovative designs and know that you’re contributing to the planet one step at a time. I love the line…it rocks!!!
I love some of your pieces. Especially the bee ring, the detail on it is exquisite!
Would it be hard to keep these metals clean, can you advise what you would use?
hi monica,
we actually like the oxidation that time gives to our pieces…a more antique finish,but if you prefer shiny then we advise a jewelry cleaning cloth.
have a lovely day.
best,
dara
nice design i never see before
thank you for the wonderful article.
I love the jewelry designs. You mention about open cast mining using chemicals like cyanide and sulphuric acid. Even underground mining uses this method. It is good to see great designers using recycled material. Nice work.
It was my absolute pleasure to write this article. The people who run Alkemie are goodhearted, down-to-earth people with a whole lot of style. I’m a huge fan. In fact, I ordered 2 pieces that are in the mail as we speak!
This is an excellent idea to recycle metals, precious and base metals to create unique jewellery designs.It also offers buyers unique hand made jewellery designs that are more eciting than high street jewellers offerings. We specialise in recycling scrap Gold, Sterling Silver, Platinum and other metals and much of our recycled scrap precious metals is reused in the jewellery industry. Maybe Alkemie could consider reusing old scrap Gold and Silver jewellery in their designs of jewellery as part of their recycling based jewellery making strategy.
eco friendly and can be reused. i bet the environmentalists love that! same with me actually. rings that you can recycle seems like a great idea.