With May bringing out the sunshine, summer dresses and the sparkly bling, I thought we could cover green jewellery this month, and I don’t mean Emerald rings, Jade bracelets or Malachite drop earrings… no I mean knowing where your stones / diamonds come from and how they were made, so your necklace doesn’t turn into a lodestone around your neck borne from funding some African insurgency with blood on their hands.
In case you missed the film starring Leo de Caprio, a ‘Blood Diamond’  – also called a converted diamond, conflict diamond, hot diamond, or a war diamond, refers to a diamond mined in a war zone and sold to finance an insurgency, invading army’s war efforts, or a warlord’s activity, usually in Africa.
Many dealers and retailers now abide by the Kimberley Process  code. This supposedly protects you from unwittingly wearing conflict or blood stones. Earlier this year the code banned the sale of diamonds from Zimbabwe’s Marange mines due to dreadful conditions and the number of fatalities. Burmese rubies are also banned via international sanctions.
‘Ethical’ diamonds tend to come from countries like Canada or Australia. If you’ve got deep pockets you can push the bling boat out with diamonds from the Australian Rio Tinto Argyle mines.
Gold can take the gloss off its shine too on the ethical front. Its production is synonymous with intense poverty and ecological destruction (mining uses huge quantities of Cyanide). New Fairtrade and Fairminded gold standards guarantee the 100 million informal miners on small scale mines a proper price and set ecological standard – which without being biased (ok maybe a  little) I would stick with Welsh gold, probably what Duffy was singing about in the song Big Flame.
Alternatively there are some progressive jewelers making fantastic pieces out of recycled glass, and other abundant materials – maybe part of the lesson is to value yourself not the cost of your accessories.