A WORD ON SUSTAINABILITY
In today's climate (literally), sustainability of products is so very important.
byMaraca jewellery takes this to heart, and here are the steps that are taken:
MATERIALS
What about the silver?
All silver used (for each earring post and full pieces) is recycled silver. I am working on having necklace chains sustainable, too, but this is currently only for all items sold with PRIOR shop and not my online shop, markets or other stockists.
Is brass a sustainable material?
Brass is a widely recycled material. As a copper-zinc alloy, it would be too expensive and uneconomical for its broad use to bin scrap pieces, especially considering the fact that melting it down will not reduce its value. This means, that within the metal industry, brass gets reused over and over - until it lands on a jewellery bench and will stay in its shape for years to come!
Introducing the ZERO collection
byMaraca even goes one step further:
Any scrap metal such as off-cuts from bigger pieces, is kept and eventually turned into pieces for the ZERO collection. I am constantly seeking ways to make beautiful use out of scraps!
Other byMaraca materials
Any other materials are sourced from UK suppliers where possible, thrifted or reused in other ways. This includes freshwater pearls. When a listing says it uses bronze, it starts out as bonze clay which uses eco-friendly water-based binders.
THE MAKING PROCESS
byMaraca jewellery is made in small batches or even made to order in my home studio. This means, there is no wasteful over-production, no unnecessary use of energy or materials, and definitely no binning things that haven't worked out!
PACKAGING
byMaraca packaging is plastic-free, reusable and recyclable/recycled.
Upon check-out there's an option to go for 'reused packaging'. This means, the box or envelope your (safely packaged!) jewellery comes in might not be so pretty from the outside, but we all know it's what's on the inside that counts anyway. These packaging materials stem from me ordering supplies to make your jewellery in the first place. So if a pretty box is not what you came here for, there's an easy way to help save the planet a little bit!
If you have any suggestions or ideas on how to make byMaraca jewellery even more sustainable, please get in touch!
I'd love to hear about it.