There are four core reasons to purchase handmade jewelry over mass produced and manufactured goods, including quality, sustainability, ethics, and community. These are some serous sounding topics, but they really are important to us and I’m sure, to you. When you purchase anything that’s artisan—from fashion, to beauty, to furniture and home goods, you are directly supporting these four pillars.
QUALITY
The first one I want to talk about is quality. Quality in jewelry comes in different forms, from craftsmanship to materials, with each aspect as important as the next. Starting with craftsmanship, when you purchase handmade you are purchasing from someone who has spent years training, either in college, studying under mentors, or by meticulously teaching themselves. Most of the time, it’s all three. These artisans know how to make jewelry and they know how to make it well. This guarantees that you are purchasing a heirloom quality piece that will last for generations, rather than a manufactured piece designed to only last until they want you to repurchase again.
When your jewelry is 100% handmade, you’re not just gaining someone’s training, but their eyes (and hands) on every piece, meaning the quality control is exceptionally high. We never let our pieces go without inspecting them first to ensure the best quality and craftsmanship possible. Handmade means there’s no machine creating our jewelry, but two hands, filled with muscle and bone, manipulating the materials into something beautiful. There’s no machine slapping things together and dropping them off an assembly line, it’s a person who takes the meticulous care with each and every piece.
Lastly, quality also means better materials. Manufactured goods tend to be made with lesser quality materials because profit is the goal, not quality craftsmanship. Jewelers who handmake each piece search for the best stones and materials to make their work to ensure their quality standards are always high. Often, manufactured goods are so cheap because they are base metal with gold or silver plaited over it, which rubs off over time and can cause skin irritation or other various issues. With handmade, you don’t have to worry about the materials being lesser than the best. Even quality jewelry made of gold or silver filled materials can still be found with the highest grade of materials available.
SUSTAINABILITY
Sustainability is a word thrown around quite liberally, so lets breakdown what it means in the jewelry world. Basically, it means that you aren’t using any methods or materials that will completely deplete or permanently damage the resource, materials, or environment in the process. At Elana Jovero Jewelry, You can be sure we are working everyday to make our studio safer and more environmentally friendly. We use 100% recycled metals, support companies with environmentally friendly mining practices, implement green and safe environmental practices, and consistently update our studio as new technologies come out to continue to ensure these goals. Many of the handmade jewelry brands you see share the same ethos and practices, so you can ensure your jewelry is sustainably made. We care so deeply about the impact we have on this planet that we try to make our carbon footprint as small as possible within the handmade jewelry realm.
ETHICS
Ethics seems like a pretty radical topic to be talking about when it comes to jewelry, but its really quite important. When you purchase handmade jewelry from brands like us who commit to using ethical practices (think environmentally friendly) and ethically sourced materials (think blood-free stones), you are ensuring to buy ethical products.
We have all heard of the blood diamond, but let’s talk about what that actually means for a moment. Blood diamonds or conflict diamonds are those mined in a warn zone, with the money used for the gain of war. It literally refers to the fact that people have died while others profited over these stones. This is unacceptable, and never something we will support.
When you purchase jewelry with diamonds and other stones from us, you can guarantee that no bloodshed has ever been spilled for the gain of the sale. We work with vendors who only cut and sell conflict-free stones, every single time.
SUPPORTING COMMUNITIES
Lastly, we want to talk about the people involved with handmade jewelry. This ties to both the customer and the jeweler. There is a connection between the two that you just simply cannot get with manufactured goods and mass-produced mall jewelry. You gain the connection of custom made, a jeweler who genuinely cares about each ready made piece, and something you can pass down to your children. It’s all about supporting the people behind it and the community their from.
When you support small businesses, you support real life families and real life kiddos like these in your communities. One of the strongest things that defines me as a person is being a mom. Working from home allows me to be close to my children, to give them the attention they deserve, and to educate them and teach them everything they need to know. By shopping local and supporting small businesses, you are directly supporting families and their dreams.
You are also gaining the one on one customer service and attention to your jewelry dreams when you shop locally and handmade. I believe that jewelry is a commemorative object of a person, moment, or feeling the wearer will hold onto forever. Creating these precious symbols and becoming a part of the vessel for these memories through working with customers on their custom designs allows me to connect to you, and make sure your dreams are represented.