As an artist, I find it vital to have a sustainable studio practice. Simply put, I questioned myself one day, “if I love my craft with all of my heart, how can I maintain a healthy and sustainable relationship with it so that it may last my lifetime”. I feel a deep passion for not only my craft but the materials I use. Aside of the gem, what is more important than the material itself which sustains it? I bond with gold, I have always felt a closeness to its warmth, its buttery tactility when polished, and respected its bounce back at my hammers blow. I respect it as a material, but even more so, I respect the small-scale miners that extract it from the earth. The jewelry world is dirty, we are responsible for some of the ugliest pollution out there. How can I continue what I love without contributing to its sustainability long term? I happily pay a premium on every gram purchased because it not only supports small-scale miners and their families in a most healthy way, it also contributes to the future goldsmiths of the world, to my children’s children. So that they too may have a chance at enjoying what the earth has to provide them. Fairmined Gold is the way of the future for all goldsmiths, artists and jewelers, I don’t see any other option, I consider it essential to the longevity and success of any brand. If we could all just make this small change, imagine where we could be 50 years from now.