RAPAPORT… Reflective Images of Santa Fe, New Mexico, launched its new collection of fair trade gold wedding and engagement rings made locally by master artisan jewelers. The jewelry is available in both the Santa Fe boutique and online at artisanweddingrings.com.
”A fair trade gold wedding ring is the most hopeful and transformative new product in the jewelry sector for decades,” said Marc Choyt, the president of Reflective Images. ”We are our excited that our store and Artisan Wedding Ring website will now offer perhaps the most extensive collection of designer fair trade gold wedding rings that can be made in North America. Customers can now choose to have their custom wedding ring or engagement ring set made from recycled or fair trade gold.”
Reflective Images has been using 100 percent recycled metal, fair trade gemstones and diamonds from Canada for years. The company will be sourcing their fair trade gold from two mining cooperatives certified under the Fair Labeling Organization: Sotrami in Peru and Cotapata in Bolivia.
Choyt describes himself as an industry activist, journalist and spokesperson for fair trade jewelry issues in North America. He is the director of Fair Jewelry Action USA, a cross-sector, environmental justice and human rights network within the jewelry sector with 40 supporting businesses and organizations. Fair Jewelry Action is dedicated to seeing a world in which jewelry, from mine to market, benefits the environment and everyone that touches it.
He is currently working with key stakeholders to broadly introduce Fairtrade and Fairmined gold into the North American market in 2012 under the Fair Trade Labeling Organization and Alliance for Responsible Mining duel Fairtrade and Fairmined label—currently available in the U.K.