Moment of Clarity
Now more than ever, jewellers are committing to responsible sourcing via supply chains as lucid as the gemstones themselves, says jewellery editor Rachel Garrahan.
Photographs by Nadine Ijewere. Styling by Poppy Kain
It was not only the cherry-red radiance of the rhodolite garnet that Anabela Chan fell in love with when selecting gemstones for her latest collection. It was the wide, toothy grin of Prisca (who prefers to give her first name only), the artisanal miner in the remote Umba Valley region of Tanzania, who had pulled it from the earth.
It is rare in the jewellery industry to know much about a gemstone's origin, let alone co be able to trace its journey all the way to the person who discovered it. Stretching back thousands of years, the gem trade is one of the oldest in the world and it has always been famously opaque. A single stone is likely to pass through many hands and many countries, from miner to cutter to polisher to an entire network of dealers before it lands in the hands of the jeweller.
Chan's discovery of Prisca was made possible thanks to Moyo Gems, a project that provides female artisanal miners with vocational training and a fair mine-to-market price for their stones, allowing them to build safer, more viable businesses and improve living standards for themselves and their communities.
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